Dash of Thunder
by Nightfury991
Summary: (Note, this is set after the season 3 finale and the Equestria Girls movie) After crashing with a visiting Pegasus, Rainbow Dash finds herself having strange feelings in her chest towards this stallion. But what is this stallion hiding from Rainbow? Why is Rarity acting so protective over this Pegasus? And why does this Pegasus and the Wonderbolts seem to get on so well? (RDxOC)
1. First Crash

**Hi, NightFury991 here. I know, I know, you're not gonna believe it; me, writing a My Little Pony story? But I just thought I needed a change from the other stuff I'm writing and, well, why not do this? **

**Bare in mind this is my first time writing a MLP fanfic, and yes I have watched all three series/seasons (Pick your poison), but if any of the characters seem a little out of character to what they are like in the show, then I do apologies. **

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Chapter 1

The sun slowly rose from behind the Canterlot Mountains, the early morning rays of lightly trying weakly to make it to the ground, even though the skies were crystal clear; not a single cloud in the sky to block the sun rays from reaching the ground. The rays of sunlight slowly manages to reach the town of Ponyville, in which many ponies were still asleep. But as the sun rays worked through the windows of the ponies' houses, they knew that it was time to get up and begin to start on their daily activities. Within a few minutes of the sun rays first reacting the ground, doors began to open on various houses around the town, and Earth, Unicorn and a few Pegasus ponies started to come out of the open doors and began to go about their daily lives. Stands started to open up, as well as some of shops in Ponyville, while other ponies were walking around the streets of the town, trying to take in the early morning sunlight before the streets were packed with all the other ponies that occupied Ponyville, as well as some of the Pegasi from Cloudsdale that would often come down to Ponyville.

Speaking of Cloudsdale and Pegasi, one Pegasus in particular was still fast asleep; this wasn't really anything out of the ordinary for this cyan coloured coat, rainbow-maned mare Pegasus, since she would normally sleep in her cloud house, complete with small rainbow-coloured waterfall and pond just staying on the cloud supports of the cloud house. This cyan coat Pegasus had her head and muzzle half-buried in the pillow, the part of her mane that wasn't against the pillow sticking up at every angle, while the other part of the mane that was against the pillow was smooth, something that wasn't really seen on this cyan Pegasus. Soon however, the sun managed to rise enough for it to allow the sun rays to break through the gaps in the cloud walls that formed the windows for the cloud house, and went right into the left eye of the cyan Pegasus, causing her to groan as the sun light made it past her eyelids. "Uhh….too early…" groaned Rainbow Dash lowly, slowly turning over so that the back of her mane was facing the sunlight from the window. After trying for a few more minutes to get back to sleep, it soon became apparent to Rainbow Dash that the sun wasn't going to give up trying to get her up, and so she sighed tiredly, muttering, "Alright, alright, I'm getting up; I'm getting up…" as she slowly sat up on her bed, stretching her forelegs out and behind her back, the top of her mane smoothed down against her head, part of the rainbow mane getting in her eyes, while the part of the mane that was at the back of her neck was sticking up wildly in every direction.

Rainbow Dash looked up at the bit of mane that was getting in her eyes and frowned slightly, before puffing up to try and get the mane out of her eyes; it stayed out of her eyes for a few seconds, before falling back into place. Again, she frowned, only a bit deeper this time, and she puffed a breath up against the mane. Once more, the mane stayed up and out of her eyes for a few seconds, before comically falling back into its original place. Gritting her teeth slightly in annoyance and growling quietly, Rainbow Dash lifted her right foreleg up and pushed the mane out of her eyes, keeping it up for a few seconds before lowering her hoof. After the mane hadn't fall back into place after a few seconds, Rainbow Dash smiled triumphantly; until the mane fell back into place over her eyes. Rainbow Dash growled in annoyance at her mane, before sighing and muttering, "Fine…I'll brush it..." as she slowly got off of her bed, and stretched her back legs back, stretching the muscles, trying to get them up from the long night sleep. After her back leg muscles had been fully stretched and woken up, Rainbow Dash moved to her wings; she stretched and fluttered the cyan feathered wings slightly, waking the muscles up from having been partly lied on for the night.

After her muscles had been stretched, Rainbow Dash slowly trotted out of her room, picking up one of her Daring Doo books, _Daring Doo and the hunt for the Crystal Wings, _up that had somehow dropped from the end of her bed during the night and putting it back on the end of her bed, right next to the other Daring Doo books she now owned; once she had done that, she returned to trotting out of her room and down into the area of her cloud house that acted as the kitchen. Grabbing one of the ripe apples that sat on the counter of her kitchen, Rainbow Dash took a bite out of it as she headed towards the front door of her house; but before she had a chance to push open the door, she felt something nudge against her back right hoof. Looking back, she smiled as her eyes landed on the tortoise, not turtle, TORTOISE, nudging its head against her back hoof. "Sorry 'bout that Tank; nearly forgot to feed ya," said Rainbow Dash, smiling down at Tank in slight apology; Tank blinked at her slowly, slowly twisting his face into a smiled as Rainbow Dash quickly trotted over to one of the cupboards below where she had grabbed one of the apples, and pulled out a box of cereal, labelled, _Pony O's, _before pouring a small portion of the cereal into one of the bowls. She barely managed to pick up the cereal between her hooves, before slowly hovering a few inches off the floor to get over to the Tank, who being a tortoise, would have taken forever to reach the bowl if she had put it where she was to begin with.

As Tank slowly lowered his head down to the bowl and to an excruciatingly slow mouthful of the cereal, Rainbow Dash patted his shell before saying, "I'll be back later, Tank; I'm just gunna go see if my friends are missing my awesomeness this morning." After patting she patted Tank's shell a second time, and with Tank slowly looking up to her, his mouth in mid-chew as he slowly nodded his head before returning it to the bowl, Rainbow Dash trotted to the door again; but again, she stopped before she could open the door. Though this time, it was because she had remembered her mane and how it was so smooth on one side and so wild on the other side; she couldn't go out like this! The smoother side had to be spiked up; she had a reputation to keep up. After rubbing the smoother part of her mane with her right hoof for a few seconds, Rainbow Dash twisted her head around, trying to get a good look at the once smooth, now wildly spiked part of her mane; once she was sure that it was matching the other part of her mane that was already wildly angled in every direction. After she was sure that it matched, she smirked before saying, "See ya, Tank; gotta dash!" And with her self-made catch phrase, she trotted towards the front door for the third time in as many minutes, and finally managed to open the door this time. After stepping out into the sunlight, Rainbow Dash quickly covered her eyes to allow them time to adjust to the sudden change of light.

"Man, it's bright…" commented Rainbow Dash to herself as she lowered her foreleg from her eyes again once those rosy coloured eyes of hers had adjusted to the light on the outside. Opening her wings and letting the wind brush through the feathers for a few seconds, Rainbow Dash suddenly shot forward at high speed, her mane and tail whipping around against the wind she was flying against; she always liked a challenge, and after the stuff she had put against herself, flying against the high wind was mere filly's play. Her mane and tail was fluttered around almost violently against the wind, a light rainbow slowly forming behind her mane and tail; the wing going around her wings, messing with some of her feathers, though she knew it wasn't affecting her flight path too much. Rainbow Dash looked around in front of her, trying to find at least one cloud to allow her to practise some of her moves; but she couldn't see anything in the shape of a cloud or anything else in front of her.

_WHAM! _

Something suddenly crashed into Rainbow Dash's right side; it threw her off for a second, before her wings quickly righted herself and returned to her to her level flight path. She frowned angrily and turned around, saying, "Hey! Watch where you-" but stopped mid-sentence when she noticed that there wasn't anything at her level that could have crashed into her. Suddenly, she heard a panicky cry come from below her; looking down, her eye's widened as her breath caught in her throat as she saw the small black dot, quickly getting smaller and further away; it must have been a Pegasus, and it looked like it wasn't going to stop its high-speed decent. "Oh boy," muttered Dash, before looking around, trying to see if there was any other Pegasus around. But when it became apparent to her that there wasn't any other Pegasus in the skies at the moment apart from herself and the rapidly descending Pegasus, Rainbow Dash, without another second thought, shot straight towards the ground and the falling Pegasus. The cyan coated Pegasus was rapidly picking up speed as she flew towards the ground at high speed, pressing her wings against her slim figure to try and increase her speed to get to the other Pegasus quicker.

As the other Pegasus began to grow larger the closer she got to it, Rainbow Dash had her front hooves in front of her, her eyes watering at the high speed wind going into her eyes; she had to keep them open to keep an eye on the Pegasus, though she squinted them as much as she could to try and keep the wind out of her eyes. As she got ever closer to the falling Pegasus, she could take in more of the details of the other Pegasus; for one, she could tell from the size of the Pegasus that it was a male, and this male had seemed to have blacked out, since his limbs and wings were flapping around aimlessly. "C'mon, c'mon," muttered Rainbow Dash to herself, pressing her wings tighter against her body, trying to make herself as streamline as possible. Soon, through her squinted eyes, she could see a faint Mach cone forming a few inches in front of her hooves. Within a few seconds of the Mach cone faintly forming at the front, she was level with the other Pegasus, and after noticing that they were dangerously close to the ground at this point, Rainbow Dash quickly flapped her wings to give herself that little extra speed she so sorely needed right now. And thanks to that little extra burst of speed, Rainbow Dash soon found herself a few feet below the blacked out male Pegasus, and she slowly tilted her body so that she was flying to move under the male Pegasus. She slowed down ever so slowly as she slowly levelled off, and when she felt the weight of the male Pegasus on her back, her first thought was, _'Man, he's heavy!' _before her second thought was, _'I hope I've got enough height to pull off this without causing any injures.' _

Rainbow Dash glanced a look to the ground, and her rosy red eyes widened as she saw how close she and the other Pegasus were to the ground; she could see all of the individual ponies that were now dotted around Ponyville. Panicking ever so slightly, Rainbow Dash quickly spread her wings to try and slow their decent down; with the Mach cone now fully gone and themselves slowing down slowly, Rainbow Dash knew that they didn't have enough height to pull off a no-crash landing; but, wasn't a landing that you could walk away from a good landing? She didn't have long to process this thought, however, as the ground was quickly coming closer to them at an incredible rate. Rainbow Dash quickly closed her eyes, awaiting the impact with the ground and the pain that was going to follow the crash. Seconds passed and nothing happened, before she felt her stomach come into contact with the ground and, seconds later, she felt herself digging into the earth as she began to roll across the ground from the momentum of the impact; she felt the weight of the male Pegasus fall off of her back, and she didn't know what happened to it after the initial impact.

A few seconds passed of tumbling and rolling across the ground, before she slowed down to a stop, and silence followed, filling the air around Rainbow Dash. The mare Pegasus slowly opened her eyes, her vision slightly obscured from a cloud of dirt that had kicked up from the impact. After a few minutes of checking her legs and wings, Rainbow Dash found that she hadn't gained any sort of serious injury from the impact; the only things that were really damaged from the crash were her clean coat and her pride. After shaking the majority of the dirt out of her coat, Rainbow Dash looked around and gasped slightly when her eyes landed on the male Pegasus; from the momentum of the crash, he had rolled and tumbled across the ground further than Rainbow Dash and had crashed into the _one _tree that was surrounding the field that they had landed/crashed in. Rainbow Dash quickly galloped the short distance between her and the unconscious male Pegasus, and quickly nudged him into his front, poking his side slightly as she said, "Hey, hey; c'mon, wake up. Don't be pretending to be asleep on me, 'cause I will be _so _mad at you if you are!" But after she didn't get a response from the male Pegasus, she began to actually get worried; what if somepony walked past the field and saw him? How the hay could she explain this?!

'_Calm down, Dash; just try to wake him up, and if that don't work, try going to Twilight; she'll probably have something that could help, what with her constantly working on potions, she's bound to have something to help,' _Rainbow Dash told herself, breathing deeply to try and calm herself. Taking her time to try and calm herself, she took the chance to look over the more detailed parts of the male Pegasus. She was correct in thinking that it was a male Pegasus, judging from the body shape and the squared off muzzle, compared to her rounded-off muzzle. And the size of the Pegasus suggested that it was a stallion; and he didn't look more than a year or two older than she was. The coat of the stallion was a deep, midnight black, which came into back contrast with his white mane, which in turn was in contrast with the black strip going through the centre of the mane; the same could be said for his tail. Her eyes glanced up from looking at his tail and her eyes landed on his cutie mark; what threw her off for a second was that it looked similar in shape to her own; a cloud with a strike of lightning coming out from the cloud. Though the stallion's cutie mark had a dark grey cloud, which was hard for it to be separated from the colour of his coat, with the lightning strike being a pure white colour.

"Hmm; interesting," commented Rainbow Dash under her breath, glancing her eyes over the stallion's body; but when she glanced at his wings, she felt her blood go cold and her wings flutter for a second before she pressed them tightly against her sides; the wings had several of the feathers missing, with other feathers sticking up at wild angles, much like her mane was; though his wings weren't at extremely odd angles, they were bent ever so slightly off centre; not enough for it to be a broken bone, but enough for it to be clear to Rainbow Dash that it was a fracture or at least something wrong with the muscles.

"Think I'd better go see Twi; she'll know what to do better than I ever could," muttered Rainbow Dash to herself, quickly glancing around to make absolutely sure that there wasn't any pony around that she could ask to go and get Twilight Sparkle. After realizing that there wasn't any pony around or going to come around, Rainbow Dash quickly turned to fly towards Ponyville, but hesitated; she just couldn't leave this stallion out here, alone and with a possible fractured wing or wings? Rainbow Dash quickly glanced around to look back at the unconscious stallion, before saying to the unconscious Pegasus, "Don't move; not from that spot. Just…stay there; stay…." Rainbow Dash, after realizing that she was talking to an unconscious Pegasus that probably couldn't hear her, shook her head, muttering, "Losin' it; talking to somepony that probably can't hear me at the moment…" before she spread her wings and took off with the speed of a bullet, like she hadn't crashed at all.

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**So, how did I do for the first trial chapter? Good? Bad? Want me to continue? Please leave your response in the reviews.**

**Nf991**


	2. Wha? Where'd he?

Chapter 2:

Rainbow Dash flew through the air just a few feet about the roof tops of the buildings in Ponyville, having to swerve several times to avoid the chimneys stacks at the top of some of the buildings. Rainbow Dash quickly scanned the area of that streets, trying to see if Twilight Sparkle was already out and about, and in doing so, save time and get back to the stallion, who she hoped was still where she had last seen him. She flew around above the streets of Ponyville for about five minutes, and once she completely knew that Twilight wasn't already out of her house/library, Rainbow Dash turned sharply in the direction of the library. When the tree-truck base of the house/library that belong to her 'egg-head' of a friend came into view, Rainbow Dash quickly flapped her wings a few more, powerful times before she landed right outside the front door of the library of a home. After taking a few seconds to calm her breathing rate, Rainbow Dash quickly trotted up to the door and knocked rapidly on the door, saying, "Twi! Twi, you in?"

Several _thuds _came from within the building, followed by several 'Ouch!'s' that were familiar in tone to that of Twilight. Slowly putting pressure on the door, Rainbow Dash found that it was already open and pushed it open completely. Looking into the interior of the building, Rainbow Dash found that the bottom floor that acted as the library part of the house, with piles of books nearly reaching Rainbow Dash's chest. She heard sudden movement coming from below a large pile of books, and sure enough, the head of her Alicorn friend popped out from the pile, eyes rolling around in their sockets. _'Twilight; buried in books as usual,' _thought Rainbow Dash cheekily, smirking to herself as Twilight shook her head to clear it and looked over at Rainbow Dash, and frowned deeply.

"Rainbow Dash! Did you HAVE to knock like that? You interrupted my annual book sorting; I just sorted out the 'Magical Textbooks' section, and was just about to move on to what needed to go in the 'Historical Magic Spells' section when you interrupted and knocked all the books off of the shelves. Now I have to start all over again!" complained Twilight Sparkle, getting out completely from the pile of books the rest of her body was under, flapping her new wings to try and flatten some of the feathers that were bent slightly from the books landing on them, before gently pressing them against her body. Her horn lit up with purple light and a purple aura covered most of the books, levitating them into the air and they began to fly into several shelves in the library, Rainbow Dash having to duck every so often when a book came flying at her to get to their shelves.

"Uh, Twi? I," started Rainbow Dash, stopping momentarily to duck to avoid a worn cover, heavy-looking book flying past her head, "I'm gunna need your help." Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash, the books stopping momentarily in mid-air as Twilight Sparkle spoke to Rainbow Dash, "And what would that be, Dash?" Rainbow Dash looked around awkwardly, raising one of her front hooves and rubbing the back of her neck nervously, before saying, "I, uh…kinda….got a stallion that looks like he's injured pretty badly and out cold." Twilight's eyes widened before she quickly asked, "What? How did it happen? Is he alright? Where is he? Wh-" Rainbow Dash had put a hoof against Twilight's mouth, cutting her off from asking too many questions. "We don't have time for this; we have to get to him; like, now!" said Rainbow Dash urgently, and Twilight, having pushed Rainbow Dash's hoof away, quickly nodded.

"Spike? Spike!" called Twilight up the stairs. Said purple scaled, green finned dragon came from around the corner at the top of the stairs next to the edge of the bookcases. "Uh…what is it, Twilight? Can't ya see that I was trying to get some sleep?" asked Spike sleepily, yawning loudly as he stretched one of his arms while using his other to rubbed the sleep from his eye. "Sorry, Spike; but I need you to get some of my potions that I made recently; you know, the green one, next to the Memory replenishing potion?" Spike did a mock salute, saying, "Ay-ay, Princess (!)" before he walked back out of sight to fetch what Twilight wanted him to get. Twilight rolled an eye playfully, muttering, "Honestly…." A few minutes passed before Spike reappeared at the top of the stairs, a chemistry-like vial in his hands; the liquid that was in the vial was a deep purple in colour.

"Thanks, Spike; you can finish your sleep now," said Twilight, smiling in thanks at the young purple scaled and green finned dragon, purple aura surrounding the vial, the vial soon floating out of Spike's hands and towards Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. "Yeah, see ya…" said Spike, yawning again before he walked, again, out of sight beyond the stairs. Rainbow Dash examined the deep purple liquid in the vial, and asked, "So, this will get that stallion back to the land of the living, yeah?" Twilight nodded, saying, "If this doesn't wake up him, then nothing will."

Rainbow Dash tilted her head in response, before shaking it; they didn't have time to worry about this now, the more important thing they needed to worry about was that stallion! "Right; where's this stallion, the last time you saw him?" asked Twilight, as Rainbow Dash began to lead Twilight in the direction she had flown from to get to the library. "Follow me and you'll find him; oh, and try to keep up," said Rainbow Dash, adding the last part with a competitive smirk. Without another second wasted, Rainbow Dash began to fly at a moderate speed. "Always with the competitiveness…." Commented Twilight under her breath, before she realized how far Rainbow Dash was ahead of her and she called, "Hey, wait up!" before she quickly galloped after the distant Rainbow Dash.

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"Come on; we're almost there," called Rainbow Dash below her, to the still galloping Twilight Sparkle, the princess kicking up dirt with each gallop she took as she travelled along the dirt road that lead to where Rainbow Dash had left the stallion. "You've been saying that for the past five minutes; it's not as easy to keep up with you when you're not used to having wings that have suddenly appeared from out of nowhere!" called Twilight back up at Rainbow Dash, who rolled an eye playfully as she slowly descended to the ground, reducing the need for either of them to shout to get each other's attention. "Alright; he's just in the field in front of us, by the only tree in the field; I swear this is the last time I'm gunna say it," said Rainbow Dash down to Twilight, not having to shout as loudly as when she was higher up. Twilight nodded up at Rainbow Dash, the vial of dark purple liquid still hovering around her head, the purple aura still covering her horn and the vial to keep it levitated about the ground.

Rainbow Dash spotted the one field in the view in front of her that only had one tree going around the area of the field, and she lowered herself closer to the ground as she began to slow down, allowing Twilight to catch up with her better. "Alright, we're here," aid Rainbow Dash, having now landed on the ground next to the now trotting Twilight Sparkle, who was panting lightly as she said, "You really need to learn how to fly slower; I nearly had a stitch half way during that run to keep you within both hearing and eye sight!" Rainbow Dash rolled an eye, an annoyed look on her muzzle as she said, "I can't; I have a reputation for being the fastest flying in Ponyville to keep up here." The two continued this idle, friendly arguing until they reached the place where Rainbow Dash had left and saw the stallion last; though they were in for a shock.

"Uhh….where is he?" asked Rainbow Dash, looking at the foot of the tree that she had last seen the stallion Pegasus; but all that was there now was the dent in which the stallion had landed after the crash with the ground and the grooves in the ground where she and the stallion had created when they had first crashed into the ground. "I think I should be the one asking you that question," commented Twilight, looking around like Rainbow Dash as the vial of dark purple liquid stopped circling her head, stopping at the right side of her head, her magical purple aura slowly screwing the lid that she had put on the vial when she had first made the potion. Rainbow Dash looked around, taking several steps forward, along with a few steps each side of her as she searched for the missing stallion.

"I…I don't understand; he was right here! That was where I left him!" said Rainbow Dash firmly, gesturing firmly with a hoof at the foot of the only tree in the field. "Well, then where is he?" asked Twilight, looking around before she trotted forward in a random direction to search for the stallion; Rainbow Dash also took off in another direction, trying her hardest to try and find the missing stallion. The two search for almost an hour; they spread their search beyond the field Rainbow Dash and the stallion had crashed into, heading into the other fields to try and find anything that could lead them to the stallion. For some strange reason, they didn't search past the Everfree Forest; they just didn't seem to think that the stallion could make it there if both his wings were damaged.

"Rainbow Dash, we can't find him; he could be anywhere now," said Twilight at last, having met Rainbow Dash back at the start of their search, both of them not having found anything that led them to the stallion. "Well, he can't have gotta far; both his wings looked like they were at least damaged," came Rainbow Dash's reply, her voice trying to persuade Twilight to give them more time to search. Twilight sighed, and said, "Rainbow, we;ve searched for an hour already; we've search at least a three mile radius of where you crashed, and we've found nothing."

Before Rainbow Dash could complain, Twilight said, "I'm sorry, Rainbow; but I've got to go..." before she turned and began trotting back in the direction of her library/house. Rainbow Dash watched her go, before looking back at the foot of the tree she had seen the stallion before she had left to go and get Twilight for help. "Where'd he go? Did he wake up while I was gone and left? Well…we wouldn't have got far if his wings are as bad as I think they are…" commented Rainbow Dash to herself under her breath, before she suddenly lifted her head up and looked around, realizing that she was alone. "I've got to stop talking to myself; it's starting to creep my out…" said Rainbow Dash to herself.

Realizing that she had done it again, Rainbow Dash sighed in frustration and shook her head, before she opened her wings and shot off into the sky and towards Cloudsdale, her tail and mane leaving behind faint rainbows behind. Rainbow Dash was unaware of the fact that a single black feather, too big for it to be from a bird, came from behind the tree and floated into the air from the slight breeze that was left over from Rainbow Dash's sudden lift off.

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**Well, that's the second chapter out in as many days; do you think I got Twilight's character right? Don't worry; I'll be including the rest of the Mare 6 in the next couple of chapters.**

**As always, please R&R.**

**Nf991**

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**At Pridakfan253: Is that better now?**


	3. Meeting Thunder Light

Chapter 3:

A few days had passed since Rainbow Dash had crashed into the mysterious stallion, who had then vanished by the time she had brought Twilight Sparkle back to where she had left the stallion; since then, Rainbow Dash had nearly fully forgot about the stallion, having been busy with work from the weather factory for a clear sky in Las Pegasus, as well as a couple of rainstorms dotted around Fillydelphia and Manehattan across the few days between the time she had crashed into the stallion and now. Apart from work with the factory, she had spent time hanging out with her close friends and just practising with acrobatic manoeuvres.

It was about midday, two days after Rainbow Dash had crashed into and lost the stallion, Rainbow Dash was currently walking along the main street in Ponyville, having done her work for the Cloudsdale's weather factory for the day, and she had practised all she wanted to for that day; so, she decided to go and see Pinkie Pie at Sugarcube Corner; she had a hankering to do some pranking, and who better to be her partner in crime than Pinkie Pie? Rainbow Dash was almost at the café when she heard someone calling her name, "Rainbow! Dash, dear!" Rainbow Dash turned around to see the white coat, purple maned mare unicorn that was Rarity.

"Yo, Rarity; what's up?" asked Rainbow Dash, turning to look at her unicorn friend as Rarity trotted over to her, Rainbow Dash having her usual air of confidence around her. "Well, dear, I have a request for your help," said Rarity, stopping a few feet in front of the cyan Pegasus, her mane in her usual curly form. "Sure, wh-Wait; is it going to involve helping you with a dress? Namely involving me posing for you to fix a dress I'm going to wear?" asked Rainbow Dash, raising an eyebrow suspiciously, lifting one of her front hooves off of the ground. Rarity giggled lightly, holding one of her hooves up to her mouth to stop herself from giggling, and she said, "Oh, no dear; I find the manikins don't fidget as much as certain Pegasi one could mention," as she cast a look over to Rainbow Dash, who returned her look with a slight scowl.

"Anyway, no; what I need you help for is help in searching for a Pegasus," said Rarity. Rainbow Dash's eyes widened after a few seconds; her mind was suddenly drawn back to that mysterious Pegasus that had vanished into thin air while she had tried to get Twilight to help her help him. Could Rarity know this mysterious Pegasus? When she noticed that Rarity was waiting for a response, however, Rainbow Dash quickly and discretely shook her head and said, "Um, sure; w-what does he-uh! I mean, this Pegasus, look like?" Rainbow Dash held her breath, hoping that she hadn't messed up, hoping that Rarity wasn't talking about the same Pegasus that she was thinking about. Rarity raised an eyebrow slightly in response to Rainbow Dash's shaky response, but shook it off and said, "Well, he's a stallion; if I remember correctly, I believe that he is about….a year older than me. He has a midnight black coat, with a white mane which has a black line going through both the whites of his mane and tail. His eyes are an ice blue; oh, and his cutie mark is similar to that of yours; though his is a black cloud with a ghostly white lightning strike coming from it."

With each bit of description of the Pegasus, Rainbow's panic grew and her right eyelid twitched slightly; there wasn't any doubt now, that this was the same Pegasus she was thinking to what Rarity was describing to her. "U-Um, sure; I-I'll help ya with lookin' for that Pegasus; why does he need lookin' for?" Rarity looked up at Rainbow Dash, and for one of the few times, Rainbow Dash saw a slight tint of worry in Rarity's eyes. "Well….he said he was visiting Ponyville a week ago, and said that he was on his way a few days ago; which means that he should be here by now…I'm just worried about him."

Rainbow did a mock salute, saying, "Yes, Ma'am; I'll try and find that Pegasus for you, Ma'am!" Rarity chuckled ever so slightly and said, "Well, thank you darling; I haven't checked the Everfree Forest, but I have checked all of Ponyville. Perhaps you could be a dear and check in the forest for me?" Rainbow Dash rolled an eye, thinking, _'Leave me to do the dirty work; meh, suppose it's better than being stuck indoors, with no flying, and getting hurt by those little pins.' _Rainbow Dash cringed mentally at the mere thought of those fabric pins nipping her skin, though she didn't show it physically; she didn't want Rarity to see her cringing at the mere thought of fabric pins! "Alright, alright; I'll check Everfree, and tell ya if I find anything 'bout that Pegasus. Now, I gotta dash!"

And with her signature catchphrase and an eye roll from Rarity, Rainbow Dash shot into the air without so much as a second thought, leaving a small cloud of dirt kicking up against Rarity, who at first coughed loudly to try and clear her lungs from the dirt, before letting out one of her squeals and said, "Eek! I just had went to the Day Spa this morning! Lotus Blossom! Aloe! I need the usual again!" as she dashed to the Day Spa for the second time that day.

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Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was high in the sky about Ponyville, a panicky speed in her wing flapping, heading towards the Everfree Forest at high speed, panic covering her face; that Pegasus had obviously meant something to Rarity. "Maybe there's somethin' going on between those two…ooh, I'm gunna tease Rarity when, and if, I find this stallion," muttered Rainbow Dash under her breath, a small smirk forming on her muzzle, despite the panic forming in her gut. Rainbow Dash suddenly shook her head again, saying out loud, "Why do I keep doing that?!" She then put a hoof over her mouth quickly, looking around to make sure there wasn't any other Pegasus nearby and at her level in the sky. After making sure that she hadn't embarrassed herself to anyone she could see, Rainbow Dash quickly focused back on the task at hand and quickly descended to the Everfree Forest.

She landed expertly in a clearing between three trees in the forest, and was since it was in the middle of the day, she wasn't nearly as creeped out-not scared, she was Rainbow Dash!- as she was when she and her best friends had entered the Everfree Forest when Nightmare Moon tried to make it permanently night. Without the darkness of night, the forest was actually….just like another other normal forest; just trees, trees and more trees, with several flowers dotted around in small areas of the forest that Rainbow Dash could see. "Now…where to start?" thought Rainbow Dash aloud, looking around slowly, one front hoof in the air as she tried to figure out which was the best direction to start off going in, in search of this Pegasus. "Hmm…oh! Zecora might know if there's a Pegasus in the forest!" said Rainbow Dash, before quickly trotting in the direction of the zebra's home.

The walk to Zecora's place was relatively calm and quiet; Rainbow Dash made sure to keep an eye out for any sign that the Pegasus had been in the Everfree Forest. When Rainbow Dash arrived at the large tree stump, littered with strange warrior masks from a foreign land that was Zecora's home, the cyan Pegasus pony trotted over to the door of the place and quickly knocked on the door, saying, "Zecora, you in?" A few seconds went back, and there wasn't any sound coming from inside the house; but when Rainbow Dash thought about leaving and trying somewhere else, movement could be heard inside the house, followed by the clopping of hooves against the floor.

The door opened up, revealing the mare zebra who owned the house, the golden rings around her front left leg, as well as her neck, with a large golden ear ring hanging from each of her ears. "Ah, it is Rainbow Dash, I believe; you are lucky, for I was about to leave," said Zecora, her thick African accent coming through as she spoke in rhyme to the cyan mare Pegasus. Rainbow Dash tilted her head and said, "What? Where were you about to go?" Zecora gestured to the satchel at her side, saying, "There are herbs that I am in need, though this Pegasus needs to agree."

At the mention of the word 'Pegasus,' Rainbow Dash's head and ears perked up, and she said, "Wait, did you just say Pegasus?" When Zecora nodded, Rainbow Dash quickly asked, "Is it a stallion? Black coat, white and black mane, black cloud with white lightning cutie mark?" Zecora tilted her head suspiciously at Rainbow Dash, and said, "Why is it that you ask?" Rainbow Dash looked down sheepishly, pawing at the ground outside Zecora's house, and chuckled nervously, saying, "Oh, just…no reason…"

"Hmm…" said Zecora suspiciously, before tilting her head back, gesturing for Rainbow Dash to enter. Rainbow Dash quickly followed Zecora back into the zebra's house, closing the door behind her; once she gave the room a quick glance around, seeing the usual masks lining the interior of the room, the brewing pot sat in the centre of the room and the various pots and potions either hanging from rope or on shelves, before her eyes landed on something that made her eyes widened in shock and, somewhat, relief.

There, lying down on his side against one of the sides of Zecora's house, was the stallion Pegasus that she had crashed into and had lost a few days back; he was breathing, which came as a relief to Rainbow Dash, thought he did have strange, dark green leaves wrapped around the base of both of his wings, as well as a couple going around his front right foreleg, just above the hoof. Rainbow Dash glanced a look at Zecora, who was now walking forward to the stallion and pressing her front left hoof against his forehead. Rainbow Dash took a step forward, her front right hoof halfway up to take another step forward; Zecora turned back to her and said, "His wings are damaged, my dear; two muscles, he did tear, poor dear." Rainbow Dash mentally cringed at the mere thought of what Zecora told her; she personally hadn't tore any muscles in her wings, though the closest she had come to that was pulling the muscles in her wings a couple of times; but never tearing them. She had heard stories about some Pegasi tearing muscles after extensive flying for too long, which prevented them from flying for times between a week and four weeks! Rainbow Dash couldn't even begin to image being grounded for four weeks, and so, tried not to think about it as she took another step closer to the stallion and Zecora.

"Has he woken up much? And, when did you find him?" asked Rainbow Dash, who was no level with Zecora, who had taken her hoof from the stallion's forehead and turned her head to look at Rainbow Dash directly. "I found him against a tree in a field far from Ponyville; when, I heard this rather loud shrill," replied Zecora, the two mares unaware that the stallion's ear began to twitch slightly, like he was trying to listen in on what the two strange feminine voices were saying….

"Alright…well, I actually was the one who accidently crashed with him and caused him to…well….uh, anyway, it could have been worse; if I didn't help him, then it could've been worse. He was actually lucky that I helped him, otherwise he could've had worse injures," commented Rainbow Dash, gently pawing at the wooden floor for the first half of what she was saying, though she did get more of her natural confidence back by the time she had said the second half of her small speech. Before Zecora had a chance to reply to what Rainbow Dash said, however, a sudden shout of surprise came from beside them; they both turned their heads sharply at the sound of the shout, and were both surprised to find that the stallion was awake, and that his eyes were just as Rarity described them; an icy blue, that Rainbow Dash, for some strange reason to her, seemed to be drawn into…they seemed so…calming, and kind…thought at the moment they were filled with shock, with a tint of fear in them.

"W-What?! W-W-Who are you two? What-What happened to my wings?!" asked the stallion in a panic, looking around at the two mares, finding where he was strange and unfamiliar. Before he could try to get up and possibly hurt his green leaf-wrapped ankle, the strange pony with a white body with black strips, and several gold rings around its hoof, neck and a ring hanging from each ear. "Stay calm, my child; there is no need to act wild," the strange striped pony said, a strange accent coming through in her voice that the stallion didn't recognise. "W-What happened?" asked the stallion again, though this time, he said it without the frantic tone of panic in his voice that had had before. The other mare walked forward, and the stallion took notice of her unique rainbow-like mane and tail, and she said, "Well, um….you and I…kinda…crashed and you must've been knocked out when you hit a tree during a perfectly 'walk away'-able landing," as she rubbed the back of her neck and mane nervously.

The stallion looked at the rainbow-maned mare, holding his non-bandaged hoof up to his chin, before saying, "I…think I remember somethin'; I was flying to Ponyville to see somepony, and I was caught in me own thoughts when suddenly, _wham! _I accidently hit somethin' and, when I tried to recover, I felt agonising pain in my wings; since I had flown the whole way from Las Pegasus-I don't like having to be stuck in a train all the way from Las Pegasus to Ponyville-my muscles couldn't handle the sudden need for powerful flaps. Since I was _so _tired from the long flight, the pain didn't help much for me staying away and well…everything went black for then." Rainbow Dash felt the smallest pad of guilt in her stomach at the thought of what this stallion was saying; if she didn't crash with this stallion, then he'd probably be alright and with two, perfectly working wings. If only she had slept in that day, like the other times she did!

It suddenly occurred to Rainbow Dash that she didn't even know the name of the mysterious stallion who she might have caused permanent damage to. "Um, 'scuse me, but I don't think I ever got your name." The stallion looked over at Rainbow Dash and said, "Oh, where are my manners? Name's Thunder Light; and who, might I ask, are you?" Rainbow Dash lifted her head up proudly and said, "Name's Rainbow Dash; officially the best flier in all of Equestria, and just awesome in nature!" Thunder Light nodded slightly, smirking at the attitude that was Rainbow Dash, and turned to the strange colour-schemed pony and said, "And who are you, Ms?" Zecora bowed her head slightly in greeting, and said, "Zecora, my name be, young one; it may surprise you that I am not a pony, but a zebra, young one." Thunder Light raised an eyebrow slightly in surprise, and said, "Zebra? ….Don't think I've ever seen one of your kind before now."

Zecora smiled at Thunder Light, and said, "If you had not, then you would still be in pain; since your wings might have a sprain." Thunder Light's eyes turned to look at the base of his wings, seeing the bandages and he sighed softly, before asking, "Well…how is it before I can fly again?" Zecora walked over to the cauldron at the centre of her house, and she said, "Within seven rise and falls of the sun, you shall be fine; until then, treat them well, like a shrine." Thunder Light looked at Zecora with a slight tint of confusion in his eyes at her rhyming her sentences, and he glanced at Rainbow Dash, whispering, "Does she always rhyme her sentences?" Rainbow Dash slowly raised a shoulder, whispering, "This so; she's always been like that, for all the time I've know her." Thunder nodded slowly, slowly and shaking rising to his hooves, as he said, "Well, thank you for your help, Zecora, but I really need to get to Ponyville; Rarity has been expecting me. Wait, how long have I been out?"

"Uh…two days," came Rainbow Dash's reply, and Thunder Light's mouth literally _drop, _before he quickly closed it and said, "Well, I REALLY need to get to Ponyville." Zecora began adding several different powders and strange smelling liquids into the cauldron, resulting in several puffs of blue and green smoke spitting up from the cauldron, and she said, "Very well, but do take care; any un-needed flapping will cause those muscles to tear." Thunder slowly nodded, still finding it weird that Zecora rhymed her sentences, before slowly taking a tentative step forward; since he stood on his bandaged-wrapped hoof, it caused that leg to buckle and he would have fallen onto his friend; that is, if Rainbow Dash hadn't pressed against his side to help keep him up and steady.

Thunder Light glanced a look at Rainbow Dash with a raised eyebrow, and Rainbow Dash rolled an eye and said, "Well, I _was _the one who caused you to crash, though if you had been looking where you were going, this would never had happened…Anyway, I'm a friend of Rarity, and I've made a promise to get you to her. So…c'mon." With that, Rainbow Dash began to help the limping Thunder Light to the door, but they were stopped by Zecora, who said, "Be warned, my little ponies, this advice may sound cheesy; 'there comes a point in every ponies lives where they must choose between what is right, and what is easy.'" Rainbow Dash and Thunder Light both looked at Zecora before they looked at each other, and Rainbow Dash said, "Um…thanks? We'll be going now." And with that, Rainbow Dash and Thunder Light exited the tree stump of a house.

* * *

"So…you said you're close friends with Rarity, huh?" asked Thunder Light, trying to start up conversation between the two of them as they made the walk from the Everfree Forest to Ponyville. Rainbow Dash nodded and said, "Yeah; me and her are close friends, and Elements of Harmony." Thunder Light instantly perked his head up and said, "Really? You and her are two of the Elements of Harmony? Wow…Rarity didn't tell me anything about that." Rainbow Dash smirked softly and said, "So…you and Rarity, you two close?" Thunder Light nodded, saying, "Yeah, we were close; though we have been drifting apart recently; that's the reason why I planned this visit to Ponyville with her." Rainbow Dash smirked, though she didn't say anything; she decided to safe it until she was with both Thunder Light and Rarity were in the same place.

The rest of the journey to Ponyville was relatively quiet, the only noise being the noises of the Everfree Forest and the birds and other animals once they had exited the Everfree Forest and were getting closer to Ponyville. As they entered the main area of Ponyville, several ponies glanced at the two Pegasi enter Ponyville, Rainbow Dash helping the new Pegasus along, and gave the two strange looks; looks that they would give to couples. Rainbow Dash glared back at the ponies who gave her and Thunder Light those looks, while Thunder Light tried to avoid looking at any of the ponies for some reason…

The two eventually in the heart of Ponyville, and they were walking past the Day Spa just in time; Rarity had just come out of the spa, having been in there for all the time Rainbow Dash had been away in the Everfree Forest; her coat had been completely cleared off any dirt that had caught in there when Rainbow Dash had left in a dash to the Everfree Forest. When Rarity saw Rainbow Dash, and then Thunder Light next to her, her eyes, for a second, instantly lit up in joy and amazement, before they quickly widened in shock and fear as she spotted the green leafs wrapped around the base of Thunder Light's wings and around his ankle. She instantly galloped over to the two, and when she reached the two Pegasi, instantly nuzzled against Thunder Light's neck; Rainbow Dash found it pretty awkward and took a step to the side, since Thunder Light had managed to balance himself as he nuzzled Rarity back.

"T-Thunder? What happened to your wings?" asked Rarity in panic, glancing her eyes to and fro from Thunder Light's face and wings. Thunder Light sighed softly, and said, "Um…I…well, I flew all the way here soon after I sent you that letter; but along the way, I must've put my wings through so much long distance flying that I felt this agonising pain in my wings, and I…kinda crashed, knocking myself out. Luckily, this zebra, Zecora, found me and patched me up. A few days later, or so I'm told, this Pegasus," as he gestured his head over to Rainbow Dash, "came to that zebra's house and said she was friends with you, and so, here we are now."

Rainbow Dash found this the right time to start her teasing, and she sniggered, saying, "Rarity, I don't think you ever told me that you had a special somepony…" Both Rarity and Thunder Light looked at Rainbow Dash, before Thunder looked at Rarity, who said, "Well, Rainbow Dash, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but me and Thunder Light here are cousins."

* * *

**...Well, that's put a spanner in the works, ain't it?**

**I'll be including more OC's later on in the story, and if you want me to include your Earth/Pegasus/Unicorn pony OC's, just leave them in a review or send them to me in a PM; I'm already planning on using a OC from Darkshadow27; he's got some pretty awesome stories on this. Check out his newest story, The Adventures of Sonic Skychaser, in which Thunder Light is actually in.**

**As always, R&R and thanks for reading.**

**Nf991**


	4. Warnings

Chapter 4:

"Wha..?!" asked Rainbow Dash, her eyes widened to at least twice their normal size and her mouth hung open, like it was just about to fall away from her skull; she quickly shook her head, bringing her jaw close again and blinking several times, before looking at the Pegasus and Unicorn cousins and saying, "Well….that was something that I most certainly not expecting _that._" Rarity nodded, smirking slightly at Rainbow Dash's shock, and said, "Thunder Light and I used to be really close; though when he from Fillydelphia to Las Pegasus, he couldn't reply to my letters as often as he used to while he was in Fillydelphia. This was his suggestion of use trying to get into contact again and make up for the time he was in Las Pegasus." Thunder Light nodded in agreement to what Rarity said, and added, "Plus, I just wanted to get away from the busy city life of Las Pegasus, especially when Rarity mentioned how quiet Ponyville usually is."

Rainbow Dash glanced a look at Rarity, and she asked, "What did she forget to mention that time when Nightmare Moon tried to make it permanently night? Or when Discord caused chaos throughout Ponyville, and we're the only ones who managed to stop him, AND turn him good? Well, technically, that was Fluttershy, but still… Did she tell ya any of that?" Thunder Light looked at Rainbow Dash with wide-eyes, before glancing a look at Rarity, who shrugged innocently before Thunder Light said, "No…she didn't mention any of that, funnily enough…" Rarity rolled her eyes and said, "Well, nothing seriously bad has happened recently, so I thought this would be a good time to agree with Thunder Light here to come here." Thunder Light then looked at Rarity, and muttered, "By the way Rarity, did you get my satchel that I sent on ahead?" Rarity glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who was trying to listen in on what they were talking about, before she whispered, "I did get it, though I can't believe that you actually thought about sending _that _on ahead!"

"Uh, 'scuse me, but I am standing right here, you know?" said Rainbow Dash, clearing annoyed that they were talking about something they didn't want her to see, yet they were talking about whatever they were talking about with her a few feet in front of them. Thunder Light straightened up, and cleared his throat awkwardly, saying, "Well, it's been very nice meeting you, Rainbow Dash, though my ankle's starting to hurt again." Rarity tilted her head towards her house/shop, saying, "Come on now, Thunder Light; I've already prepared the guest room for your arrival. I'll help you get there, if you so-" Rainbow Dash interrupted her by suddenly blurting out, "I'll help him to your place if you want to!" Both Thunder Light and Rarity looked at Rainbow Dash, who was standing there awkwardly from her sudden and unexpected outburst, before saying, "Well…I have helped him from Zecora's to here, so I might as well help him the rest of the way."

Rarity did seem to be against this, but Thunder Light was able to say anything before Rarity had a chance to, and he said, "Sure, I've got nothing against that; what about you Rarity?" Rarity turned to look at Thunder Light, before she slowly nodded; though there did seem to be a little reluctance in her eyes as she nodded. Rainbow Dash smiled, for some strange reason in slight happiness, and trotted over to Rarity and Thunder Light and stood on the opposite side of Thunder Light, with Rarity on his other side and they made their way to Carousel Boutique. The short journey from the Day Spa to the Carousel Boutique was relatively quiet; the three ponies didn't really have anything to talk about.

When they got to the Carousel Boutique, the only things that were in the lower level of the Boutique were several manikins around the side of the shop, along with several fabric roles either rolled up on Rarity's desk or partly over the pony manikins; Sweetie Belle was most likely hanging around with the other Cutie Mark Crusaders. "I'll help him up from here," said Rarity, and with that, she and Thunder Light walked up to the upper tier of the building.

Rainbow Dash looked around, now feeling bored, and tried to find something to do while she waited for Rarity to come back down. She slowly trotted over to one of Rarity newest dresses, which had a white fabric making up a skirt, with green fabric curved around the edge of the skirt; there were daffodils dotted around the sides of the dress, along with a single daffodil attached to behind the manikin's right ear. "Not bad…though it isn't really my style," muttered Rainbow Dash to herself, flicking a bit of her mane out of her eyes, before she heard Rarity coming back down from the upper tier of the building. "He's just settling in," said Rarity, thinking Rainbow Dash would want to know about Thunder Light; this was what Rainbow Dash wanted to know, and nodded. "I'll just get going now; can't leave Ponyville too long without my awesomeness," said Rainbow Dash, turning to walk out of the front door.

"Uh, Rainbow Dash; could I talk to you for a moment before you go?" asked Rarity while she walked over to one of her work desks, a light blue aura covering her horn and a pair of red-edged glasses were soon covered in the same light blue aura, and floated into the air from the desk and rested themselves on Rarity's head. "What about?" asked Rainbow Dash, taking a few steps over to Rarity as the white coated unicorn began work on one of her new dresses. As Rarity began sewing two sides of a dark purple fabric together, she kept glancing between Rainbow Dash and the fabric she was sewing, and said, "Well, those looks you were giving Thunder Light weren't very discrete, now were they?" Rainbow Dash's eyes widened at what Rarity said; seconds later, she had shaken her head and looked at Rarity, this time, in a look of astonishment, and said, "What?! Y-You think I gave him LOOKS? Wha-How?! Well, I didn't! A; I next to know nothing about him, B; I don't give 'looks' as you call it to anypony; and C, I only do what you said, 'the looks', to ponies that are at least as awesome as me; if not that, then at least 20% as awesome as me!"

Rarity rolled an eye, before focusing on the sewing of the fabric for a few seconds to make sure that it was just as perfect as when she started; once she was sure that it was still perfectly aligned, she turned back to Rainbow Dash and said, "Well, be that as it may, I still saw you giving my dear cousin those looks; even if you deny that you did. Just a word of friendly advice; please, _don't, _try to have those sort of feelings towards my cousin; he has already been through that with another mare; apparently, they were together as marefriend and coltfriend for a while. But they knew they couldn't keep it up with their line of work."

"Mind if I ask _what _his line of work is? 'Cause if it's something awesome, then I wanna know about it," said Rainbow Dash, interrupting Rarity mid-sentence; though she didn't cause faults in Rarity's sewing in the slightest. "I'm afraid I cannot tell you that, dear," said Rarity simply, focusing back on her sewing for the moment to try and avoid trying to think about talking about it. "But why can't you tell me?" asked Rainbow Dash impatiently, having always hated being left in the dark about something. Rarity stopped sewing the fabric for a second and suddenly slammed her hoof down gently on the desk; not enough to startle Rainbow Dash, but enough to get her attention. Rarity sighed wearily and used her unicorn magic to take off her sewing glasses; once the glasses were back on the desk, Rarity looked up at Rainbow Dash completely, her eyes showing begging in her eyes; something Rainbow Dash hadn't seen before in her eyes.

"Please, Dash dear; Thunder Light asked me, almost begged me in the letter he sent me, to not tell anypony about his past. He said he'll tell anypony when he thinks is the right moment," said Rarity, gently rubbing the side of her head as she used her magic to return the glasses back onto her head as she went back to work on her sewing. Rainbow Dash could see the slight stress that Rarity was going through at the moment, and sighed, saying, "Alright, alright; so, don't get close to Thunder Light in that way, and don't try to get any info out of 'im?" asked Rainbow Dash, wanting to make it clear.

Rarity smiled at Rainbow Dash slightly, tipping her glasses forward slightly for a second, and she said, "Yeah, Dash, dear; I'd really appreciate it, and I'm almost certain that Thunder Light would thank you as well." Rainbow Dash smiled slightly at her friend, before saying, "Well, I'd better get going; can't leave Ponyville without my awesomeness for too long," as she began to turn to door at the front of the building. "Ta-ta, dear," said Rarity, waving a hoof at Rainbow Dash as she continued to work on the basis of the new dress she was designing, having finished on the dark purple fabric and have now turned to cutting some more fabric of the same shade of purple into the shapes she needed them to be.

Rainbow Dash smiled back one last time at Rarity before she exited the building, the bell jingling as she opened and closed the door. She unfolded her wings and was about to fly off, when she suddenly heard a whistling sound coming from behind her. Rainbow Dash looked up and saw Thunder Light's head looking out of one of the windows; once he got Rainbow Dash's attention, he jerked his head back, trying to tell her to come up to the window. Rainbow Dash seemed to get the message and flapped her wings, quickly flying up level with the window and flying over to Thunder Light. "What do you want?" asked Rainbow Dash, trying not to sound rude, but unable to get the natural attitude out of her voice when she asked that. Thunder Light rolled his eyes slightly, and said, "I heard Rarity talking to you about me."

Rainbow Dash folded her front hooves, one over the other as she said, "Didn't know it was alright to eavesdrop from where you came from." Thunder Light chuckled softly before he said, "Well, you certainly have an attitude about you, eh? Anyway...I was wondering; wanna hang out for a bit either tomorrow or later? Since I'm kinda restricted to the ground for the best part of a week, and you're the first Pegasi I met, and well-"

"Look; you wanna hang out with me, yeah?" asked Rainbow Dash, her hooves still folded, as she raised an eyebrow as she looked at Thunder Light. Thunder Light innocently shrugged, and Rainbow Dash rolled an eye, and said, "Well, I only hang around with awesome ponies; do you think you're awesome enough to hang around with me?" Thunder Light shrugged calmly, saying, "Dunno; probably. How awesome do you have to be to hang around with a Pegasus like you?" Rainbow Dash smirked victoriously and said, "You have to be _pretty _awesome if you not one of my friends; if you are one of my friends, then it doesn't matter how awesome you are." Thunder Light smirked in return, saying, "Well then, I think that I am kinda awesome; always been a good flier, if that means anything towards it." Rainbow Dash tilted her head to the side slightly, making it look like she was thinking about it, before nodding slightly, saying, "Hmm; well, I am pretty awesome at flying myself; hopefully, I'll get to see how good a flier you are."

Thunder Light smirked slightly, and said, "Alright; so, we meet up tomorrow? Here? Rarity'll probably be still asleep." Rainbow Dash, for a second, was against the idea of going against Rarity's wishes, but she was just hanging out with her cousin for, like, a day? Where could the harm be in that? "Sure; meet you here, sun up," said Rainbow Dash, smirking at Thunder Light as she unfolded her forelegs, her wings still flapping to keep her up. "Alright; see ya then," said Thunder Light, smiling back at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash smiled at Thunder Light, feeling a slight different feeling in her chest that she hadn't felt before. "A-Alright, see ya," said Rainbow Dash, surprised at herself that she actually stuttered slightly.

Shaking her head, she bid another goodbye to Thunder Light and flew away from the boutique, heading into Ponyville again; yet, for some strange reason, she just couldn't get Thunder Light out of her head…

* * *

**Look, if you don't like how I'm writing the chapters, then don't read it; pure and simple. **

**Anyway, yeah, fourth chapter out and such.**

**Nf991**


	5. Next Morning

Chapter 5:

The next morning, like the day she had crashed into Thunder Light, Rainbow Dash was awoken early in the morning by sun rays going straight into her eyes when she felt warmth on her eyelids; she winced slightly when the sun went into her eyes, and she rolled over in her bed, trying to get the sun out of her eyes; this ended up in her rolling out of her bed, the bed cover wrapping around her like a cocoon around her as her legs flailed out in all directions when she fell out of the bed. Rainbow Dash groaned lowly as she rubbed her head, which she had landed on when she fell out of her bed. Once she was sure that the room had stopped spinning and the stars had vanished from her vision, Rainbow Dash slowly worked the blanket off of her, and pushed it back onto the bed, not bothering to make her bed; since she never usually did. She thought about going to sleep again, thought something was nagging her in the back of her mind that she couldn't go back to sleep yet; that she had something important she had to go to this morning.

'_Ah! I've got to meet Thunder Light!' _thought Rainbow Dash suddenly, in a strange panic; I mean, she was just meeting up with this Pegasus that she had only just officially met yesterday, before she hung out with her other friends and 'helped' Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres by accidently crashing through a few trees when she was distracted by something she couldn't remember. Anyway, Rainbow Dash literally dashed out of her room, stopping momentarily at one of the few mirrors she had in her house to look over her mane, making sure she was presentable and-

'_Wait, what? Why am I worrying so much about my appearance all of a sudden?! I mean, I'm just going out to see a friend, like normal,'_ thought Rainbow Dash as she looked at herself in the mirror, seeing her mane was smooth on one side and wildly spiked up in every direction. Rainbow Dash looked at the spiked up hair in the mirror, before slowly lifting a hoof up to the smoother side and gently ruffled her mane, to get it spiky and match the other side of her mane. As she did this, her mind couldn't help but wander to Thunder Light….that look of kindness in his eyes, even after she told him she was the one who crashed into him….The smirk that, for some reason, caused a funny feeling in her gut…

Rainbow Dash suddenly shook her head, having stopped ruffling her mane from her mind wandering. _'W-What?! W-Why was I thinking about him?! He's nothing special!' _thought Rainbow Dash to herself, feeling her cheeks warm up in a slight blush at her mind wandering to Thunder Light. Shaking it from her mind for now, Rainbow Dash focused on making her mane look presentable, and that both sides looked the same. Once her rainbow mane was at least similar on each side, Rainbow Dash trotted down from her bedroom and to the front of her house; she had already set out another bowl of _Pony O's _for Tank before the tortoise was even up. When she was sure that Tank was aware that there was food already set out for him, Rainbow Dash had opened the door of her house and flew out into the early morning sunlight of Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash flew high over Ponyville, her wings flapping at a medium rate to keep her moving forward and keep her up. She tried not to think of anything as she flew, thinking that it would lead her mind to start thinking about Thunder Light again; why was that black coated, black and white maned stallion on her mind so much? _'Maybe it's just that he's knew here; that'll pass soon enough,' _Rainbow Dash reassured herself, keeping her eyes on the space in front of her, which was slowly turning from the horizon to the ground, the cyan Pegasus making a slow dive towards the ground.

* * *

Once she had landed in Ponyville, just outside the Carousel Boutique, and was surprised to see Thunder Light just exiting the front of the shop; he was moving slowly, carefully opening the door as to not set off the bell loudly. When he was out of the shop, he quietly closed the door behind him and turned around, looking at Rainbow Dash with a smirk that, for some reason, caused a slight shiver to run up the cyan Pegasus' back. Thunder Light slowly walked over to Rainbow Dash; the mare noticed that he wasn't limping as much as he was yesterday, and she commented, "You're legs better, I see." Thunder looked down at his still partly bandaged ankle, and looked up at Rainbow Dash as he said, "Yeah; turns out it wasn't a bad a sprain as a thought, and should be healed by tomorrow; though my wings are still not gunna get better until at least next week…" and finished the statement with a sigh of disappointment; Rainbow Dash could tell that he was missing being able to fly.

"Ah, c'mon; don't get all soppy; that ain't my style to be around ponies who're soppy," said Rainbow Dash, rolling an eye at Thunder Light's attitude; though she did feel a little sorry towards the fact that he couldn't fly for a week, or possibly more should he put stress on the wings before they were fully healed. Thunder Light sighed one last time before shaking his head and looking up at Rainbow Dash after he had lowered it, and said, "Enough about me; since I'm sure you know where everything is, where would you suggest we go then?" Rainbow Dash lifted her front right hoof to her chin for a moment, thinking before saying, "Well, how about I just show you alright around Ponyville, and if we happen to pass some of my friends, we go see 'em; how's that sound?"

"Sounds good to me," said Thunder Light with a friendly smile, and Rainbow Dash couldn't help by flash a short smile back at the stallion, feeling the same shivering feeling run up her back slightly; though she didn't show it in front of Thunder Light, since she still had to make sure her first impression on him was the same as the others saw her as she was. Rainbow Dash quickly trotted to the side of Thunder Light, nudging his shoulder with her own slightly, trying hard to block Thunder Light from seeing the slight blush on her cheeks as she said, "C'mon, we'd better get going if we're going to see all of Ponyville today." Thunder Light smiled at Rainbow Dash kindly, completely unaware of the slight red tint to her cyan fur covered cheeks, and said, "Well…lead the way, m'lady."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, partly out of annoyance of how he was talking to her at the moment and partly from how cool and calm he seemed to be able to talk to her, and jerked her head to the deeper part of Ponyville, saying, "C'mon then," as she began trotting away from the stallion. Thunder Light rolled an eye playfully at her attitude towards him, before to slowly walked after the cyan coated Pegasus, not wanting to cause any more damage to his partly healed ankle and get to stop walking as well as flying. Rainbow Dash slowed down ever so slightly to allow Thunder Light to catch up, and the two Pegasus walked through town, Rainbow Dash making ever so slight glances to Thunder Light; for some reason, she just couldn't help but get drawn in by just the sheer blueness and look in his icy blue eyes…

"Um, Rainbow Dash? You OK?" asked Thunder Light suddenly, dragging Rainbow Dash from her thoughts to find that she had been looking at Thunder Light for a full minute now, and the stallion had seemed to have caught on. Rainbow Dash blinked a few times, before quickly and violently shaking her head to try and clear it, her cheeks going an even darker red that contrasted terribly with her cyan coat; thought Thunder Light didn't seem to notice or care about the blush, seeing as he seemed to be more concerned about Rainbow Dash. The mare seemed to notice that he didn't seem to care about the blush; that, or that he had seen the blush but wasn't going to say anything about it. Rainbow Dash shrugged nonchalantly and said, "Yeah, 'm OK; thought you can just call me Dash; Rainbow Dash is just a bit of a mouthful if ya need to get my attention."

Thunder Light nodded, saying, "Well, you can call me Light if you want; for the same reason." Rainbow Dash nodded ever so slightly, making sure she was facing away from Thunder Light until she was sure that her blush was going down. But when it still hadn't gone away, she was still facing away from the stallion, who asked, "Hey, Dash? Something wrong?" Rainbow Dash turned her head ever so slightly so that only one of her eyes just barely looked at Thunder Light, and she said, "I'm fine, OK? Now come on," and she quickly trotted off, leaving a confused Thunder Light, dumbfounded at her sudden change in attitude; though he thought it was best to not say anything about it, and slowly followed behind the cyan mare Pegasus, trying to keep up with her.

The two Pegasi walked deeper into Ponyville, passing several shops that were just opening up for the day, as well as a few Earth and Unicorn ponies that had already got up and were walking up and down the streets. A few of them casted looks at Rainbow Dash and Thunder Light, now walking beside Rainbow Dash; they never saw Rainbow Dash as the type to hang around with stallions. Rainbow Dash soon put them into their place with a quick look at them, and they knew not to question or even cast another look at the two Pegasi, or face the wrath of a lightning cloud. Thunder Light looked around at the various shops and village-style houses of Ponyville as they passed them, commenting, "This seems a real nice place; really quiet when you compare it to Las Pegasus. Man, that's a place you can't help but get annoyed at if you keep doing the same thing again and again."

"Really? What's Las Pegasus like?" asked Rainbow Dash, getting curious since she hadn't been to Las Pegasus before, wondering what it was like in a big city. Thunder Light shrugged slightly, saying, "Not really much to say apart from that it's pretty much a massive city; massive skyscraper buildings lining each side of every street, the huge flight arena for Wonderbolt Shows that often go on at Las Pegasus." Rainbow Dash perked her head up at the mention of her favourite flying team, she looked at Thunder Light and asked, "Wonderbolts you say? You a fan of them?" Thunder Light smiled softly at her question and said, "Well…you could say I'm a fan; they've been my favourite flying squad ever since I went to see one of their performances and went to Junior Flight School."

"You went to Flight School? And you still can't seem to focus on what's in front of ya?" asked Rainbow Dash cheekily, gently brushing her shoulder against Thunder Light's shoulder; she instantly regretted it, however, when she saw Thunder Light's face dropped slightly when Dash's question proceed through his mind. Rainbow Dash, for some reason, was feeling a lot more symphony towards the stallion, and muttered, "I-I'm sorry; didn't know what questions to ask and to what not to ask." Thunder Light sighed softly, his ears bent back against his head slightly as he lowered his head a few inches, saying, "It's fine; it's just….that question just brought back some bad memories from my past…I-I don't wanna talk about it."

Rainbow Dash quickly nodded, thinking that she must have touched a sensitive nerve to Thunder Light's past. When she noticed that the two of them had stopped to talk, Rainbow Dash looked up to find herself and Thunder Light outside Golden Oak Library. Smirking to herself, Rainbow Dash turned her head to look at Thunder Light and said, "C'mon, let's get that frown off your face; let's go meet one of my friends, and then we'll see if we can't turn that frown upside down." After realizing that she sounded like Pinkie Pie, she shook her head and said, "C'mon; follow me," as she turned to trot towards Twilight's house; Thunder Light following slowly behind her.


	6. Meeting the Mare 6 - Twilight Sparkle

Chapter 6:

"Yo, Twi? You in there?" shouted Rainbow Dash through the door of the Golden Oak Library, knocking on the door just as loudly as her shouts. Like the last time she had knocked this loudly on the doors of the library, Rainbow Dash heard several loud _thuds _inside the library, an easily recognisable sound of books falling from their shelves and onto the floor, as well as a few _'ouch's!' _coming from within the library. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes cheekily and turned to look at Thunder Light, saying, "Word of caution; my friend here, Twilight, is a bit of a bookworm." Thunder Light started to nod, but when he heard her say Twilight, he asked, "Wait…did…did you say Twilight? A-As in Twilight Sparkle, the new Princess?"

Rainbow Dash smirked, saying, "'Course; how many other Twilight Sparkles are Princess?" Without giving Thunder light, whose lower jaw was hanging open, a chance to reply, Rainbow Dash pushed open the front door of the Golden Oak Library. Thunder Light slowly followed behind her, looking all around the interior of the library, feeling a slight nervous feeling in his gut at meeting a Princess directly. Rainbow Dash saw a few small piles of books dotting around the library, but she didn't see Twilight Sparkle or any piles that were big enough to hide Twilight Sparkle under. But after a few minutes, Twilight Sparkle came out from the kitchen of the library, rubbing her head as she unfolded her wings partly as she said, "Rainbow Dash! What did I say-Who's this?" stopping mid-sentence when she spotted Thunder Light.

The second Thunder Light had spotted Twilight Sparkle, he quickly lowered his front in a bow to Twilight Sparkle; Rainbow Dash shook her head slightly at Thunder Light, before turning to look at Twilight and said, "He's that stallion that I crashed into and we didn't know where he went. Turns out, he's Rarity's cousin from outta town; from Las Pegasus." Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle then still noticed that Thunder Light was still bowed down, and Rainbow Dash quickly trotted over to the bowing stallion and jabbed his ribcage sharply, saying, "C'mon, get up…you're just embarrassing yourself…" Thunder Light glanced up at Rainbow Dash, and then over to Twilight Sparkle before quickly scrambling to his hooves, pawing at the wooden floor slightly as he said, "Um uh…s-sorry, Princess Twilight…"

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes, though she smiled softly at Thunder Light and said, "It's fine; I prefer to not be called a Princess when I'm just here; here, I'm just normal Twilight Sparkle. And who, might I ask, are you?" Thunder Light lifted his bandaged hoof to his mane and ruffled the back of his neck nervously, saying, "My name is Thunder Light, Mrs Twilight Sparkle." Twilight smiled at the stallion, and said, "Well, Thunder Light, how long do you think you'll be visiting here for?" Thunder Light shrugged slightly, saying, "Not sure; I might stay for as long as I am welcome to stay here, or when I think I've outlasted my stay here and think it'd be best for me to leave." Rainbow Dash felt something tug at her heart emotionally, and she just couldn't put her hoof on what it could be. Twilight seemed to see the slight frown that had unconsciously formed on Rainbow Dash's muzzle, though she didn't say anything at the moment to the cyan Pegasus; at least, not while Thunder Light was present or in the room.

"So, Rainbow Dash, you're showing him around Ponyville, I'm guessing?" asked Twilight Sparkle, trying to start up conversation to try and fill in the awkward silence that had filled the library. Rainbow Dash, looking up at Twilight with a thankful look, said, "Yeah; I thought I'd better show him 'round; partly because I want to make sure that I seem just as awesome to him as I do to you and the others; and," Rainbow Dash paused as she saw Twilight Sparkle roll an eye at Rainbow Dash's words, but didn't say anything, and the cyan Pegasus continued, "And, well, this is…kinda my way of saying I'm sorry for crashing into him...and for preventing him from flying for about a week…" Twilight Sparkle's eyes softened slightly, before turning to look at Thunder Light, who turned slightly to show his bandaged wings, pressed against either of his sides. Twilight said, "I'm sorry to hear that…maybe there's a spell I can use to help them heal faster…" as she used her magic to collect a few books that were either littering the floor or where still on the shelves, and the books moved so they were laid out in the air in front of Twilight Sparkle's head and they opened up, pages flicking open and Twilight looking through each book one at a time; she kept glancing between each of the books in turn, flicking pages back and forth with her purple magical aura, muttering to herself under her breath. "Um, no offence, Mrs Sparkle, but, uh…I think it would probably be best if I just let them heal naturally; it's not that I don't appreciate the fact they you're offering, but…I would prefer it if you wouldn't," said Thunder Light, trying not to offend Twilight Sparkle and make it seem like he didn't appreciate what she was offering to do for him.

Twilight looked over the three books that were in front of her head, and said, "Are you sure? I mean, I'm sure that I can pull this spell off; it's pretty easy to perform…" though she stopped when she saw the silent pleading look on Thunder Light's muzzle. Twilight then smiled slightly at Thunder Light, the magic aura intensifying in colour ever so slightly around the books and her horn, and the books in front of her, as well as the few books that were littering the floor, into the air, a few feet off the ground and back into the various shelves that they belonged in. "Look, I'm sorry if I've offended you, it's-" started Thunder Light, thinking Twilight Sparkle was offended by him not wanting her to attempt to fix his wings for him, but was stopped from finishing his apology when Twilight Sparkle waved a hoof, saying, "It's fine, Thunder; some ponies just don't like having magic try and fix their injures; so it's fine, and I'm not offended by you if you don't want me to fix your wings."

Thunder smiled apologetically at Twilight, before saying, "Well, I mean…if they aren't healed completely by this time, next week; then will it be alright if I come to you and ask you if you can fix 'em for me? I mean, if it's too much to ask, then I'll be fine to let them heal naturally…" saying the last part a lot quickly than the rest of what he said. Twilight smiled back at Thunder with a kind and friendly smile, saying, "Of course, Thunder; any friend of Rainbow Dash is a friend of mine; I'm still getting used to these," as she unfolded her wings fully and gestured back to them, flapping them a few times, getting airborne for just a few seconds. It didn't take long for Twilight to fall back to the ground, grunting and sighing as she landed on her stomach onto the ground, puffing a bit of her mane that had fallen into her eyes, though it didn't stay in place and fell back into place into her eyes.

Thunder Light smiled softly at Twilight Sparkle, before taking a couple of steps forward, trying not to limp, and got to Twilight just as she got up to her hooves; he lifted his non-bandaged hoof up and brushed the strand of Twilight's mane that was in her eyes to behind her ear; Twilight blushed lightly at this, smiling sheepishly at Thunder Light in thanks; though when she turned to look at Rainbow Dash, she was surprised to see that the cyan Pegasus had a look of disappointment and sadness on her head, a much saddened look in her rosy red eyes. Twilight noticed the look easily and said, "U-Um, t-thank you Thunder….uh, Rainbow Dash, could I have a work with you in the kitchen please?" Rainbow Dash perked her head up slightly when Twilight called her name, and sighed, "Comin', Twi…" as she slowly walked towards the kitchen; Twilight followed behind her, but stopped and turned her head to look at Thunder Light, and said, "You can read any book you want while we talk; just make sure that you put each book back where they came from, and _nowhere _else."

Thunder Light nodded at Twilight's offer to read the books, and slowly trotted over to one of the shelves, and searched through the shelves, trying to find a book interesting enough for him or one he might like to read. With a final nod, Twilight trotted into the kitchen of the library/home, and closed the door behind her close with her magic.

* * *

"Is there something wrong Rainbow?" asked Twilight when she closed the door and turned to face the disappointed looking cyan mare Pegasus. Rainbow Dash looked up at Twilight, having been looking out of the window in the kitchen, and quickly shook her head, moving into her usual confidence stance and said, "What? You think they're something wrong with me? Yeah right!" Though Twilight saw through her usual confidence and could hear the slightly saddened tone that came through her voice ever so slightly. Twilight sighed and rubbed a hoof against her forehead, and taking it away from her forehead when she said, "Dash, I know that's something's up with you; it's something to do with Thunder, isn't it?" while keeping her tone quiet, as she hadn't put a silence spell on the door, meaning that if Thunder wanted to, he could hear what they were talking about.

Rainbow Dash's body stiffened up when Twilight said Thunder Light's name, and she quickly glanced at Twilight, saying, "No…of course not; he's just Rarity's cousin, nothin' special…" though she gently pawed her hoof against the ground beneath her, lowering her head; something that wasn't really usually seen with Rainbow Dash. Twilight could see how uncomfortable Rainbow Das was with her talking about Thunder Light, but she wanted to find out what was wrong with her friend. "Rainbow Dash…you know that you can tell me anything, right?" Rainbow Dash looked at her Alicorn friend, and nodded, saying, "Yeah, I know I can tell you anything; and nothing is wrong with me, alright?" Rainbow Dash held the look she was being given by Twilight Sparkle for a few seconds, before the Pegasus finally broke the stern look Twilight was giving her, saying, "We'd better get back in the library; we don't want Thunder Light thinking that we've abandoned him."

Twilight nodded ever so slightly, sighing, knowing that she wasn't going to get anything more out of Rainbow Dash. She opened the door with her magic and the Alicorn and Pegasus exited the kitchen, finding Thunder Light flicking through the pages of a book he had chosen from the shelves. The stallion lifted his head up when he heard the door closing behind the two mares, and he smiled up at the two as he got back to his hooves again, saying, "Well, you certainly have an interesting job here, Mrs Twilight Sparkle." Twilight Sparkle smiled back Thunder Light's compliment, and said, "Well, thank you, Thunder Light; though I think Rainbow Dash here wants to show you the rest of Ponyville, otherwise you're not gonna see the rest of this place today."

Thunder Light nodded, slowly reaching down and picking the book up in his mouth, being careful not to bite into it and ruin it and put in back on the shelves where he had taken it from. He then turned back to face Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, smiling at the two mares; Twilight smiled back at him, whereas Rainbow Dash just looked over his shoulder, trying not to look at him in the eye, since it would give her that same feeling in her gut as before. "C'mon; think we should head in the direction of Fluttershy; that way, we can cover one side of Ponyville in one turn," said Rainbow Dash, still looking over Thunder Light's shoulder, though she did keep glancing at Thunder Light's eyes and face; she didn't want to seem rude and not look at him…

"Alright; care to lead the way?" asked Thunder Light politely, taking a step closer to the two mares; Rainbow Dash blushed ever so slightly more, though she tried not to show it as she began trotting to the door, with Thunder Light following behind her. As Thunder Light and Rainbow Dash both said their goodbyes to Twilight Sparkle, the two Pegasi closed the door behind them; though just before they did completely, Twilight Sparkle muttered, "Those two do seem to be good for each other….but Rainbow Dash would never admit that….would she?"


	7. Meeting the Mare 6 - Fluttershy

Chapter 7:

Rainbow Dash and Thunder Light exited the Golden Oak Library, and began to walk in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage; to try and break the silence as they walked, Thunder Light said, "Well…Princess Twilight Sparkle seems to be nice." Rainbow Dash, though feeling a saddened emotion tug at her heart strings, tried to smile at Thunder Light and said, "Yeah, she does have her good side when she doesn't have her head buried in her books. When she doesn't have books up to her mane in height, she's pretty brave and awesome; how'd you think she was able to become an Alicorn from a Unicorn?" Thunder Light tilted his head, showing that he understand with a single nod and the two Pegasi continued walking through the streets; several ponies who knew Rainbow Dash greeting her with a wave, a verbal 'hello' or a simple nod, while the ponies passing them would give a simple wave of a hoof to Thunder Light, who returned the same greeting to each and every one of the ponies.

"So…you said that you were the Best Flier in Equestria, yeah?" asked Thunder Light, trying to get back to talking to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash smirked in pride and puffed out her chest out in pride, and said, "Yep! Officially! From both the Wonderbolts AND Princess Celestia; because of my Sonic Rainboom!" Thunder Light looked at Rainbow Dash in amazement and said, "Really? You were the one the newspapers were talking about, about that mare who produced the first recorded Rainboom?" Rainbow Dash smirked in pride and said, "Oh yeah! Though that was actually my second Sonic Rainboom; I did the first one when I was just a filly! That just proves that I have, and always will be, awesome beyond anyone's belief!" Thunder Light smiled slightly bigger as he saw Rainbow Dash with her usual confidence that seemed to suit her so well to him, and he said, "And I'm pretty sure that you'll always be awesome. I can see it now; fillies and colts will be looking up at the massive statue of you, stating, 'Wow, I can't believe how awesome and amazing Rainbow Dash is.' Am I right?"

Rainbow Dash chuckled lightly at Thunder Light's prediction, before she slowly began to break into a laughing fit; it wasn't long before Thunder Light joined in with her laughter and the two were left there, in the middle of one of the streets in Ponyville, laughing their heads off, while the other ponies just looked at them with strange looks, for apparently looking like they were laughing for no reason whatsoever. A few minutes later, the laughter died down and Rainbow Dash and Thunder Light were left wiping the tears of laughter from their eyes. Still lightly chuckling, Rainbow Dash said, "Um,*chuckle* w-we'd better get a move on if we're gunna see all of Ponyville; at this rate, we'll be lucky to see anything." Thunder Light, still wiping away tears from his eyes that had formed during his laughing fit, slowly nodded with a smile, saying, "A-Alright, then' l-let's get moving."

With another smile, Rainbow Dash quickly began to trot in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage, Thunder Light slowly trotting behind her. Rainbow Dash, keeping her eyes on the street in front of her, couldn't help but think back to the moment a few minutes ago; it had been a while before she had laughed for that long and for that good a reason. She couldn't explain it, but…she felt the same feeling deep in her heart whenever she looked at Thunder Light, and she felt as though she had this very close connection with Thunder Light; she would never admit it, but she actually enjoyed spending time with the stallion Pegasus; she was sure Rarity wouldn't approve of the two spending time together, but surely she wouldn't find out about this?

She then realized that she had focused out of what was in front of her and quickly shook her head, trying to clear it of all of the thoughts that kept distracting her, and continued walking, glancing at the stallion trotting/partly limping next to her; looking ahead of them, taking in whatever was in front of him, wanting to take in all of Ponyville in the shortest time as possible. Rainbow Dash could see the curiosity in his eyes as he looked all around, and she couldn't help but smile at his curiosity. "So, how long do you think it'll be before we get to that other friend of yours? What was her name? 'Fluttershy', right?" asked Thunder Light, wanting to make sure he got Rainbow Dash's friend's name right before he met her, face to face. Rainbow Dash nodded, before cheekily asking, "Yeah; anymore 21 questions?" Thunder Light rolled his eyes, though he couldn't help a smirk form on his muzzle as he said sarcastically, "Well, let me think…"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, trying to act like she was annoyed at Thunder Light, but, surprising herself, couldn't pull it off; this was surprising, as she could normally pull it off with the littlest of effort, so why couldn't see do it now?! But she didn't want to make herself look like a fool in the middle of Ponyville, and especially in front of Thunder Light. She shook her head and muttered, "C'mon," as she trotted faster, making it harder for Thunder Light to keep up with her with his bandaged hoof. Thunder Light tried to catch up with Rainbow Dash, who was already quite a bit in front of him; though he did eventually catch her up, his hoof was hurting a bit more now than when it was before Rainbow Dash had started trotting faster. The two were in awkward silence for the rest of the journey to Fluttershy's, since they didn't have anything more to talk about at the moment.

When they finally made it to Fluttershy's cottage and were just crossing the small bridge over the stream that lead to Rainbow Dash's Pegasus friend. As they walked up the slight path that connected the bridge to Fluttershy's front door, Thunder Light asked, "So, what's this friend of yours like? Is she like Princ-I mean, Twilight Sparkle? Or is she something different?" Rainbow Dash, looking around for any of the many animals that were usually around Fluttershy's cottage, turned to look at Thunder Light; but when she did, she somehow came within inches of Thunder Light's own muzzle, and her rosy red eyes looking into his icy blue eyes. Rainbow Dash's eyes widened at the closeness of Thunder Light, as did Thunder Light; neither of the two expected their muzzle to be this close. It didn't take long for Rainbow Dash to keep glancing from Thunder's eyes and down to his muzzle, still shocked at herself for letting the two of them get so close, physically.

No matter how hard Rainbow Dash tried to fight emotionally and mentally against it, she couldn't help but find her muzzle slowly drawing closer to Thunder Light's own, her eyelids slowly beginning to droop until they were half way close. But just as she felt his breath breathing gently on her snout, which caused her to shiver mentally and partly physically, she was suddenly ripped back to reality when she heard Thunder Light, in an awkward sounding voice, said, "Um…Dash? What're you doing?" Rainbow Dash slowly opened her eyes completely and saw that there was barely any distance between their muzzles; she blushed heavily and quickly pulled away and turned away from Thunder Light, not wanting him to see her blushing and looking so vulnerable at this moment in time. "Dash, are you-?"

"Shut up! I'm fine," snapped Rainbow Dash, not giving Thunder Light a chance to finish his question as she made the rest of the short walk to Fluttershy's front door; Thunder Light, confused by her sudden change of attitude, though he just silently trotted after her. Rainbow Dash knocked sharply on the door, her emotions still battling each other inside; at her sharp knocking, a squeak could be heard from inside the cottage, along with the sound of various claws and paws scrapping lightly against a wooden floor. "W…Who is it?" came a soft, timid voice from behind the door. Thunder Light looked at Rainbow Dash, and she said, "It's my, Fluttershy; and I've got someone here with me. It's alright; he's an alright stallion."

The door slowly began to open, and part of the face of a yellow-coated, cotton candy-coloured mane mare with a single blue eye showing through the crack in the door. "O…Oh, h-hello Rainbow Dash…" came the timid voice of the mare, before the door opened slightly so that the mare could see Thunder Light; a soft squeak of alarm came from the timid mare, before she tried to close the door; if Rainbow Dash hadn't pushed her hoof against the door, preventing the other timid mare from closing the door fully. "It's alright, Fluttershy; I told you, he's cool," said Rainbow Dash, slowly pushing the door open as Fluttershy slowly began to ease off the door. "O-Oh….O-OK," said Fluttershy, slowly opening the door, glancing at Thunder Light nervously, while the stallion returned it with a kind smile.

"And who might you be, Miss?" asked Thunder Light kindly; he kinda guessed that the mare's name was Fluttershy, but he just wanted to be polite and ask her for her name personally. Fluttershy, looking at the ground, gently pawed her front hooves at the ground, whispered, "I…I'm Fluttershy!" finishing the sentence with a nervous, high-pitched tone. Thunder Light smiled kindly at Fluttershy, trying to show her that he didn't mean any harm to her. Rainbow Dash looked between the two, and she said to Fluttershy, "Fluttershy, this is Thunder Light; he's from outta town, from Las Pegasus; and get this, he's Rarity's cousin!" Fluttershy glanced a look up at Thunder Light's face, his kind eyes looking at her softly. "Oh, um….w-well, welcome to P-Ponyville…T-Thunder Light…" said Fluttershy in her hushed tone, still pawing at the floor of her house.

Thunder Light smiled friendly at the timid mare, saying, "Well, thank you, Fluttershy; I feel welcome here." Rainbow Dash, smiling discretely at how the two were getting on, said, "Fluttershy? Are we allowed in? I'm sure that Thunder Light would like to see what you do for a job…" as she tried to look behind Fluttershy and into the cottage, wondering if the yellow coated Pegasus had any animals in there. '_Then again, this is Fluttershy I'm talking about; she wouldn't and couldn't say no to any animal,' _thought Rainbow Dash to herself. Fluttershy pawed at the ground at the door of her cottage, and said, "Oh…I-I'm not sure he would be interested in that…" Thunder light took a tentative and cautious step forward, trying not to alarm the mare, and said, "I'm fine with seeing what you do for a living; might have to get to know what everypony does here, if I stay here long enough."

Fluttershy shyly brushed a bit of her mane with her hoof, saying, "Oh…well, OK….c-come on in…." as she slowly back into her cottage, pushing open the door to her cottage fully to let Thunder Light and Rainbow Dash in. Rainbow Dash slowly trotted to the door and walked through the open door, before turning back to find Thunder Light was still standing there; Rainbow Dash thought it was just being polite, and she jerked her head to the cottage, saying he can come in. Thunder Light looked at her and slowly trotted after her; Rainbow Dash rolled an eye at him at his politeness, thinking that he was just _too _polite for his own good. Thunder Light ignored the eye roll from Rainbow Dash, and followed behind her into Fluttershy's cottage, closing the door behind him.

When he turned around to look at the main room of the cottage, his eyes widened at the controlled chaotic scene in front of him; there were several different animals in the cottage, including several small squirrels, a couple of mice, a cat and even a few birds of various species either eating from several bowls of various foods, perched on small hooks hanging from the walls for the birds or just idly sleeping against the walls or walking around the room. "Wow….um, not what I was expecting…" said Thunder Light truthfully, ducking his head as a Toucan flew over him; the stallion bringing his head back up after the tropical bird had flew past him. Fluttershy rubbed the part of her mane going over her head and down past her cheek slightly, saying, "Well…I take care of animals here, and I have this special connection with them. T-That's how I got my cutie mark…" as she gestured to the three butterflies on her flank.

Thunder Light took note of her cutie mark, and went to take a step forward into the main room, trying to get a closer look at what was in the room; but before he could, a small white blur shot from apparently no-where and stopped Thunder Light from putting his hoof down. Thunder Light blinked and looked down at the creature, finding it to be a small white rabbit; it was looking up at him with a glare, something Thunder Light had not seen a rabbit do before. He tried to walk around the rabbit, but the rabbit wasn't having any of it; it kept moving, putting itself directly where Thunder Light was planning to put his hoof down. "C'mon; can ya move?" Thunder Light asked the rabbit, but the rabbit shook its head; it wasn't going to let him in.

"Oh, Angel….it's OK, he's alright," said Fluttershy softly, slowly walking forward and nudging the rabbit she called Angle lightly and tentatively, and the rabbit looked up at Fluttershy. Angel looked at her for a second, before glancing up at the stallion and, slowly, walked over to him and sniffed at his hoof; Thunder Light glanced at Fluttershy, silently wondering if he should do anything. "It's OK…Angel's always like this, and he wants to make sure you aren't a meanie." The rabbit seems to stop annoying Thunder Light now and hopped over to one of the food bowls that didn't have any other of the animals around it and began eating what was left of the food in the bowl. "Well…that wasn't something I'd expected when I was here," commented Thunder Light, trying to be kind to Fluttershy; Rainbow Dash rolled an eye at just how polite he was; she, she was polite, but he was just being too polite at the moment, while she was showing him around Ponyville.

"Fluttershy; sorry to cut this 'meet and greet' visit short, but I've got to show Thunder Light here all of Ponyville by the end of the day; it's nearly high noon, and we've just barely covered the first half of Ponyville that I need to show him," said Rainbow Dash, apologising to Fluttershy as she began to gesture Thunder Light to the door. "Oh…well, OK….J-Just remember that you're welcome here anytime, Rainbow Dash; and you too, Thunder Light," said Fluttershy softly, slowly trotting after the two as Rainbow Dash and Thunder Light made their way out of the door. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Mrs Fluttershy," said Thunder Light, turning around to face Fluttershy as he said what he said; he smiled kindly at the mare as Fluttershy looked shyly at the ground, saying, "W-Well…t-thank you, Thunder light…." In a hushed tone.

Rainbow Dash and Thunder Light bid goodbye to Fluttershy again before they walked down the path away from the cottage, Fluttershy waving them both away for a few seconds before closing the cottage door behind her, a she tended to the animals in her cottage again.

* * *

**Again, I'm sorry if I get Fluttershy's character wrong.**

**A/N: I won't be on over the next week, so don't expect any chapters out over the next week; the next chapter should be out by next Wednesday.**

**Nf991**


	8. Meeting the Mare 6 - Pinkie Pie

Chapter 8:

"Well, Fluttershy seems really kind and considerate," said Thunder Light to Rainbow Dash as they walked back into the main Ponyville, back into the area of Ponyville that Rainbow Dash had yet to show Thunder Light. "Well, she _is _the Element of Kindness," said Rainbow Dash with an eye roll, though she wasn't smiling like the other times she had talked to Thunder Light; her mind was still focusing on that awkward and embarrassing moment when she and Thunder Light had almost kissed…Rainbow Dash quickly shook her head violently, trying to clear it of that one thought she'd never thought would happen between herself and a stallion. Thunder Light became silent after she had said that, taking note of how her tone was; he guessed that this was all about that moment before they had knocked on Fluttershy's door when their muzzles had almost connected in a kiss. He silently trotted beside her as they walked down one of the streets of Ponyville, though this time, it was down a street that he hadn't been shown yet, and so had to trust Rainbow Dash in taking him down the right street to where they were heading.

"Look…" started Thunder Light, trying desperately to break the almost painful silence that had surrounded just the two of them, "If this is, um….about 'that', then…I…I'm sorry." He hoped that Rainbow Dash understood what he meant when he said 'that'; it appeared that the cyan coated mare Pegasus understood what he meant by that, because she sighed and looked away, saying, "Look, just forget about it….and," she added sharply as she turned around to face Thunder Light completely, her eyes having a slightly dangerous look to them, "don't even _think _about mentioning this to anyone; and I mean, _anyone! _Or else…" Rainbow Dash trailed off mysteriously as she began trotting forward, leaving a confused and slightly worried Thunder Light a few meters behind her. Thunder Light suddenly trotted after her; when he caught up to her side again, he said, "Um…what do you by, 'or else'?" Rainbow Dash just looked at him with a silent glare, which told Thunder Light one thing; it was probably best that he didn't know what she meant by that.

Rainbow Dash smiled dangerously at Thunder Light's silence in response to what she said, and she began to walk again, Thunder Light followed beside her in silence, thinking it would be best not to say anything. Suddenly, a low growling, almost rumbling-like sound filled the air around Rainbow Dash and Thunder Light; the mare of the pair instantly moved into a defensive position, thinking that Ponyville was about to be attacked by some sort of massive creature. But the only thing that she saw was several ponies just going back their daily lines at midday, and Thunder Light, who appeared to have a slight tint of blush on his cheeks as one of his hooves rubbed his stomach slightly. It didn't take long for Rainbow Dash to realize what the noise was, and she smirked smugly, saying, "Aw! Does wittle Thunder Wight want something to eat?" in a baby voice, her subtle smirk quickly forming into a face covering smirk by the time she finished the sentence. Thunder Light rolled his eyes as the blush on his cheeks became slightly darker at Rainbow Dash talking to him as though he was a colt.

"Maybe I am," replied Thunder Light, glancing around to make sure there weren't any other ponies listening in on them; but no ponies were stopping to pay attention to the two Pegasi, as they were busy doing their own thing. Rainbow Dash laughed a few more times before smirking at Thunder Light and saying, "Well, this gives us an excuse to visit one of my other friends, and an important place you'll have to know about if you want to get somethin' to eat." With that, Rainbow Dash jerked her head slightly to the side, telling Thunder Light to follow her as she began trotting off in a direction that Thunder Light didn't recognise; he followed behind Rainbow Dash anyway, seeing as she was his guide. "So, what's the name of this friend you're gunna introduce me to next?" asked Thunder Light with a smirk, and Rainbow Dash replied with a glare and, "Well, if you must know, it's an Earth pony called Pinkie Pie; and if you're gunna take any advice away from me, then it'd better be this; do not, and I repeat, _do not, _question the actions of Pinkie Pie. Just go along with it; it'll probably make more sense than if you tried asking her how she does what she does."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Thunder Light curiously, but Rainbow Dash stopped him when they were outside a building that looked like a café, with a sign hanging from the side of it with a pink-iced cupcake on the sign. "This is Sugarcube Corner; bakery of Ponyville and living place of Pinkie Pie, as well as Mr and Mrs Cake," said Rainbow Dash, gesturing with a hoof at the giant cupcake-topped café, while looking at Thunder Light, making sure he was paying attention to what she was saying. Thunder Light looked at the exterior of the bakery and meeting place, and he sniffed the air, finding a drawing, delicious smell coming from the bakery part of Sugarcube Corner. "Mm…smells good," commented Thunder Light aloud, and Rainbow Dash chuckled softly at his reaction as she let him to the front door of the bakery. Rainbow Dash pushed open the door, setting the bell hanging above the door off as she and Thunder Light trotted into the bakery, the smell of freshly baked cakes and other foods hitting Thunder Light's nose like a brick wall.

"Ah! Miss Dash!" Mrs Cake, the blue Earth pony with a curly mane and tail of two shades of pink, said from behind the counter of Sugarcube Corner. "Alright Mrs Cake? Is Pinkie in?" asked Rainbow Dash as she trotted towards the counter, Thunder Light following behind her, looking all around and at the other ponies that were meeting in Sugarcube Corner. "Yeah, she's in the kitchen; makin' another one of her batch of cupcakes," said Mrs Cake, just as a small explosion was heard from the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner, followed by a cloud of flour slowly filling the kitchen and floating out of the door to the kitchen. Rainbow Dash looked past Mrs Cake at the sight of the flour explosion, and Mrs Cake sighed, saying, "Sorry about that; now, would you like anything?"

"Well, I wouldn't mind an apple pie. What 'bout you Light?" said Rainbow Dash, turning back her head to look at the stallion next to her. Thunder shrugged slightly, saying, "I'll just have a apple pie as well, if that's alright." Rainbow Dash smirked and turned back to Mrs Cake, who took down their order with some difficultly; she had a bit of trouble with writing down readable writing with the quill in her mouth. After taking the order down, she dropped the quill onto the counter and said, "That'll be ten bits please." But before Rainbow Dash could check to see if she had any bits on her, Thunder Light took a step forward and said, "Don't worry; I got this," as he reached to his side and put ten golden coins down onto the counter. Rainbow Dash looked at him curiously as Mrs Cake took the bits and said, "It'll be a few minutes; I'll have Pinkie Pie bring it over to ya when they're done."

With that, Rainbow Dash led Thunder Light over to a table where they could sit while they waited for the pies to be done. "So…why'd ya cover the money back there?" ask3ed Rainbow Dash, resting her elbows of her forelegs on the table, glancing at Thunder Light, who was sat opposite her, with a curious and a slightly cautious look. Thunder Light, making sure not to brush his wings against the table or the chair, shrugged and said, "Thought I'd be the gentlecolt and pay for it; I owe you something for doing all this for me." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at his explanation, and smirked as she said, "Well, you've partly made it up…I'll think of somethin' for you to make the rest of it up…." Thunder Light rolled an eye but smiled as he looked at Rainbow Dash, who smirked back at the stallion.

The two talked idly for the next few minutes, talking about stuff that they'd talked about before, but mostly focusing on the Wonderbolts. "-Alright, alright; prove you're an awesome fan of the Wonderbolts. Name 'em all in under ten seconds," challenged Rainbow Dash with a smirk; she was sure that she was the only pony that she knew of that could name all of the Wonderbolts in the time she had challenged Thunder Light to. Thunder Light smirked and, taking a quick breath, said, "Spitfire, Soarin', Blaze, Fire Streak, Fleetfoot, High Winds, Lightning Streak, Misty Fly, Rapidfire, Silver Lining, Surprise, Wave Chill, Shad-Um, t-that's it." Rainbow Dash, at first slightly impressed at this stallion was able to name all of the names of the present Wonderbolts in under ten seconds, but soon because curious when he stopped halfway through saying the last thing. "What was that? The last thing that you didn't finish?" asked Rainbow Dash curiously, slowly leaning over the table slightly to look Thunder Light in the eye, as he had lowered his head slightly to avoid looking at Rainbow Dash into the eye.

Thunder Light was saved before he had to explain to Rainbow Dash by the sound of bouncing and the smell of freshly baked apple pie drifting towards the two; Thunder Light and Rainbow Dash turned at the smell, to find a bubble-gum pink coated, raspberry pink mane Earth pony bouncing towards the Pegasi with unimaginable energy, somehow being able to balance a large silver plate, carrying the two fresh apple pies on her head, without them falling off. "Hi Rainbow Dash!" said Pinkie Pie in her usual chirpy tone, still bouncing up and down with unimaginable energy, even though she was just staying on the stop, "Who's your friend? Is he from out of town? *Gasp* He is, isn't he?! I haven't met him before, so he _must _be out of town! I-!" Rainbow Dash had put her hoof over Pinkie Pie's mouth to stop her before she could start on one her question rants. "Pinkie, this is Thunder Light; yes, he's new in town, and I'm sure he would appreciate it if you didn't crush him under a pile of questions," said Rainbow Dash kindly, yet bluntly, as Thunder Light was slowly backing away into his seat from Pinkie Pie moving forward with ever question she had asked.

Pinkie Pie nodded against the hoof blocking her from speaking, and Rainbow Dash slowly moved her hoof back to her side, as Pinkie Pie bounced into the air again; this time, the pies and the silver plate flew into the air above Pinkie Pie and the Pegasi; for a moment, Thunder Light thought the pies were going to land on the floor, ruining them; but then he remembered the advice Rainbow Dash had told him before they had entered the Sugarcube Corner. _'Never question the Pinkie Pie,' _he remembered Rainbow Dash saying to him; and sure enough, there was method in Pinkie Pie's already proven madness, as the plate landed on the table, followed elegantly by the two pies, which landed on the plate neatly. Thunder Light's eyes widened in amazement at what happened in front of him on the table, before looking at Pinkie Pie in amazement, who simply returned the look with an innocent shrug. Thunder Light then turned to look at Rainbow Dash, who didn't seem to be fazed at what had just happened, and the stallion mouthed, "How…?" Rainbow Dash smirked and whispered, "I told you; never question Pinkie."

Pinkie Pie smirked widely at Thunder Light, still bouncing on the spot, brushing off a bit of flour that was still on her muzzle as she said, "Yep; Pinkamena Diane Pie, aka, Pinkie Pie at your service!" as she saluted, having stopped bouncing for a second, before she returned to bouncing lightly from hoof to hoof, smiling widely. Thunder Light smiled kindly at Pinkie Pie and said, "Well, name's Thunder Light, as Dash here has already said, and I think I'll be staying here for a while at Rarity's." Pinkie Pie then returned to bouncing up and down, saying, "I'll have to throw you a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party then! I'd better get started now! Oh, what do I need, what do need? I'd better get my party cannon ready!" And with that final outburst, Pinkie Pie was gone; she had dashed back into the kitchen in a blur, a dust outline of Pinkie Pie lingering for a second where she had stood, before slowly falling to the ground, leaving the space vacant again. Thunder Light, eyebrow's raised, turned his head to look at Rainbow Dash, and after shaking his head for a second to try and make sense of what had just happened, and said, "Well, um…she's…quite different to the other ponies I've met."

Rainbow Dash rolled an eye with a slight smile as she said, "Well, duh! She's Pinkie Pie; she's the pony to go to if you want to know anything about partying. Even though she does act a lil'….random, she does get to the point of her madness of her method." Thunder Light then nodded, before glancing down at the pies in front of them, just sitting there; almost begging to get eaten… "Well…we'd better get eating these; before they get cold." Rainbow Dash glanced at her pie, before shrugging and saying, "It doesn't matter if they're hot or cold, they still taste awesome." And with that, Rainbow Dash dug her muzzle into the pie in front of her, greedily eating away at the pastry and sweet apple centre; the sweet taste of the apples with the savoury taste of the pastry was in perfect balance with each other.

Thunder Light looked at the pie for a split second before he made like Rainbow Dash and dove into the pie, and was instantly overwhelmed by the sweet sharpness of the apples and the savoury taste of the pastry crust of the pie. "Wow!" he said, lifting his muzzle up from the pie, a small ring of pastry crumbs and apple puree around his muzzle, just behind his mouth, and said, "That is so fantastic pie! It's better than the ones I've had at Manehattan." Thunder Light instantly had a different expression on his muzzle as Rainbow Dash lifts her head up from her pie, a pastry and apple ring around her muzzle like Thunder Light's, and looked at him curious.

"Do you travel a lot?" asked Rainbow Dash, and Thunder Light breathed a silent sigh of relief before he straightening up and said, "Well, I used to travel; stopped about a year and a half ago….It, uh…was starting to bother me that I never stayed in one place for a while." Rainbow Dash tilted her head slightly and asked, "Why didn't ya stay in one place for too long?" Thunder Light, seeming to try and get out of this topic as quickly as possible, said, "Well, you know…always something else to see in Fillydelphia or Saddle Arabia, or even Canterlot…"

"Oh! Been to Canterlot, have ya? Been to the Grand Galloping Gala?" asked Rainbow Dash, leaning over the table slightly as she slowly moved to the pie to the side with her elbow. Thunder Light rubbed the back of his mane nervously, but he said, "Well….yeah, I guess I did go to the Gala…As a guest I mean…" Rainbow Dash smirked slightly, and asked, "Who invited you to the Gala? Someone famous? Someone important?" But Rainbow Dash was about to ask another couple of question when she noticed how uncomfortable and nervous Thunder Light was; he was still rubbing the back of his neck/mane nervously, his eyes were darting around the Sugarcube Corner and he seemed to be tapping his other hoof against the table, another sign that showed his nervousness. "Umm…are you alright?" asked Rainbow Dash cautiously, raising an eyebrow at Thunder Light slightly, feeling slightly worried for the stallion now.

"I'm fine! Just…can we stop talkin' about this now, please?" asked Thunder Light, trying not to sound awkward or nervous, though Rainbow Dash could easily hear it coming through in his tone. Rainbow Dash, trying to be kind to the stallion, said, "Alright," with a smile before slowly returning to her pie. Thunder smiled at Rainbow Dash for her response, and he too returned to eating his pie.

The two Pegasi continued to eat the rest of their pies and idly chat about other topics, sharing a few laughs, the awkward conversation long forgot and behind them. Soon, they both finished their pies and had just began to talk about random stuff, when Rainbow Dash said, "Say…if you like those apples so much, how 'bout we go visit the place where the Cakes' get the apples from? It's where another one of my friends lives at and works at." Thunder nodded and said, "Sure, why not?" With a smirk, Rainbow Dash got up, followed by Thunder light and the two made their way out of Sugarcube Corner, the bell ringing again as they opened and closed the door.

* * *

**OK, I lied; THIS _might _be the last chapter for a week, but I'm not sure; depends on how I plan on doing the next chapter**

**As always, R&R**

**Nf991**


	9. Meeting the Mare 6 - Applejack

Chapter 9:

Rainbow Dash led Thunder Light down another street in Ponyville, heading away from the main part of the town and out to the outskirts, where there were fewer buildings around and more and more fields beginning to become apparent. Rainbow Dash and Thunder Light were trotting slowly side by side, trying to think of something to say to past the time, though neither of them didn't know what to talk about, since they had talked about most of the things that they wanted to talk about in Sugarcube Corner; this was the point where they had to think of something to talk about, and fast; if they wanted to keep themselves from getting bored during the walks to and fro Ponyville and the various places she had to take Thunder Light to and show. Rainbow Dash kicked up a bit of dirt from the road they were traveling down to Sweet Apple Acres, and said, "So…wanna talk about anything?"

Thunder Light shook his head after a few seconds, saying, "Can't think of anything to talk about, sorry." Rainbow Dash nodded slightly, saying, "OK…" before silence overwhelmed the two again and they continued walking down the dirt path to Applejack and the barn. The walk was starting to get awkward to say the least; the two Pegasi were walking down the dirt road, not a word passing their muzzles as they walked. "Uh, I can't take it anymore," said Rainbow Dash suddenly, before she unfolded her wings and took off a few feet into the air next to Thunder Light, hovering a few feet above where she might have walked. Thunder Light looked up at Rainbow Dash slightly, and said, "I'll be looking forward to when I can start flying again…Being kept on the ground like this is driving me crazy…" Rainbow Dash felt a small pad of sympathy for the grounded Pegasus, but she couldn't help but say, "Well, yeah; flying is pretty good when you're so used to it…be a real pity if you were never able to fly again…" as she slowly allowed a smirk to form on her rounded muzzle. Thunder Light rolled an eye at her sarcastically, but smiled back up at her; again, Rainbow Dash felt that feeling in her gut spreading to her heart slowly, and she really wanted to find out what that feeling was; maybe she'd go to Twilight…

'_No! Twi'll think I've gone all mushy over some stallion!' _Thought Rainbow Dash, before she felt heat rush to her cheeks as she realised what she just thought; she hadn't gone all mushy over some stallion…had she? And if she did…then who? Rainbow Dash felt her eyes being drawn to the side which had Thunder Light on, and Rainbow Dash instantly looked to the other side again; she couldn't let on to Thunder Light that maybe there was the slightest possible chance she could have gone all mushy over some stallion that she had just met a few days ago. _'I'll never heard the end of it,' _thought Rainbow Dash, a bitter look on her face.

Thunder Light seemed to notice the look of bitterness on the mare Pegasus' face and he cleared his throat, saying, "Dash, you alright?" Rainbow Dash quickly turned her head to look down at Thunder Light, instantly trying to change her face from the bitter look to that of a calm look, and said, "Yeah, sure; I'm fine, why'd you ask?" Thunder Light looked up at Rainbow Dash, looking into her rosy red eyes, and noticed how quickly the expression on her face had changed from the bitterness to the calmness, and he said, "…No reason," as he returned to looking forward, still trotting along the dirt road to wherever Rainbow Dash was taking him. Rainbow Dash turned her head around to face in front of her, trying to hide the faint tint of blush on her cheeks; she had looked back into Thunder Light's eyes discreetly, and she felt that same feeling deep in her chest, flowing towards her heart. _'I really need to get this looked at; don't want it to be something that'll prevent me from flying,' _thought Rainbow Dash to herself, before she quickly shook her head, rubbing the back of her mane to make it look like she was just ruffling her mane.

"So, who and where're we heading to go?" asked Thunder Light, startling Rainbow Dash had his sudden question, and she lost concentration on her flying; she fell to the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dirt around herself and Thunder Light. Thunder Light waved a hoof in the air, trying to clear the dirt cloud from him before he took a step forward to see Rainbow Dash, shaking the dirt that had landed on her coat when the cloud had settled. Rainbow Dash tried to get up herself, but was stunned to see Thunder Light offering a hoof for her, saying, "Need a hoof up?" Rainbow Dash looked at the offered hoof for a second before she lifted her own hoof up; only to push Thunder Light's hoof away and getting up by herself, shaking her body to get the thin layer of dirt that had landed on her from the cloud. She ruffled her mane to get the dirt out and said, "I'm good," as she quickly began to trot forward again.

Thunder Light looked at her for a second, confused as to why she had acted like that when he had offered a hoof to help her up, but shrugged it off and slowly trotted after her. Rainbow Dash had a slight tint of blush on her cheeks again; she had never been used to stallions or colts offering to help her up, since she had that type of personality that didn't like accepting help from guys, and that she wanted to do things herself and not want help from most people; excluding her friends, of course….Rainbow Dash then saw the place they were all the way out here; Sweet Apple Acres, the red barn standing out against the green leafs and brown fields.

"Now we just need to find Applejack," said Rainbow Dash to Thunder Light, drawing the stallion's attention away from the view in front of him and to Rainbow Dash. "I'm guessing this Applejack is another one of your friends you're gunna introduce me to?" asked Thunder Light with a raised eyebrow, and Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes in response, saying, "Another saying like that and you'll be on your own! And yes, Applejack is another one of my friends; she's also the pony that helps towards the apples that you had in that pie; which you said, if I remember, was the best you've ever had." Thunder Light's eyes shifted to the side for what Rainbow Dash said first, though he looked back at her when she added the second part, and said, "Yeah, I guess you're right…"

With a victorious smirk on her muzzle, Rainbow Dash returned to flapping her wings a few times to get into the air, before continuously flapping them as she hovered a few feet about the air, flying towards Sweet Apple Acres. Thunder Light followed after Rainbow Dash on hoof, keeping an eye out for any pony that could be this 'Applejack' Rainbow Dash was on about.

A few more minutes walking later, they arrived at the arch at the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres, Thunder Light looking around beyond the leaf-covered arch, seeing the red barn, as well as fields of various crops going along for as far as the eye could see; he could also see that quite a few of the fields had apple trees filling them, the fresh red and light green apples standing against the dark green of the leafs on the trees. Rainbow Dash opened her forelegs up while she was still in flight, gesturing to the whole of Sweet Apple Acres, and said to Thunder, "Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres!" Thunder Light whistled in impressment and said, "Impressive place here; really like to meet whoever runs it."

Rainbow Dash said, "Well, you're gunna meet 'em; Applejack for now, but you'll probably meet the rest of the Apple family if you're gunna stay here long enough." With that, Rainbow Dash flew through the arch and into the Sweet Apple Acres, Thunder Light following behind her, looking around the fields and at the barn to see if he could see any of the Apple family that Rainbow Dash was on about. Rainbow Dash looked around; she saw Big Macintosh ploughing one of the fields, ready for some sort of crops to be planted, but she would introduce Thunder Light to him later, or Thunder Light would end up meeting the stallion later; whichever came first. Rainbow Dash suddenly saw the familiar orange coat of her friend and Element of Honesty in one of the fields that was filled with apple trees, bucking her hind legs back against trees and knocking the apples out of the trees, and into baskets.

"There she is," said Rainbow Dash aloud, getting Thunder Light's attention away from looking at the barn, and the cyan Pegasus flew towards the working Earth pony; the black coated Pegasus stallion following behind her. "Yo, Applejack!" said Rainbow Dash loudly, getting the attention of the Earth pony, though at the wrong moment; Applejack had just bucked her hind legs against the tree, and the apples were just falling out of the tree at the same time Rainbow Dash had shouted out. Most of the apples landed in the baskets at the base of the tree, though a few of the apples landed on Applejack's Stetson covered head. "Rainbow Dash! Watch it when y'all 're shoutin' like that!" said Applejack, her southern accent coming through easily in her voice as she rubbed the side of her head, shifting her brown hat to the side slightly as she glared at Rainbow Dash under her hat, not yet noticing the stallion standing a bit behind Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash rolled an eye with a smirk as she said, "Well, pardon me, AJ! I'm just showin' the new pony in town around Ponyville; thought I'd show him here as well, since he thought the apples you sent to the Cakes' were the best he'd ever had." Applejack tilted her head slightly, righting her Stetson on her head and said, "You're showin' somepony 'round Ponyville? And where might this pony be?"

Applejack then looked around Rainbow Dash and saw Thunder Light; Applejack raised an eyebrow slightly at the stallion, who smiled back at Applejack kindly and waved a hoof at her. Applejack then turned back to Rainbow Dash and said, "Never knew you're one tu show som' stallion 'round Ponyville." Rainbow Dash shrugged, saying, "Well, why not? I want to make sure he gets a good impression on him; y'know, makes she he sees how awesome I am!" Applejack rolled an eye as she made a slightly annoyed frown on her muzzle, before she trotted past Rainbow Dash and towards Thunder Light. "Well howdy there, newcomer; name's Applejack, and Sweet Apple Acres," said Applejack when she had reached Thunder Light, tipping her hat forward slightly in greeting to the stallion, smiling at Thunder Light.

Thunder Light smiled back and bowed his head slightly, saying, "Well, thank you very much for the greeting, Mrs Applejack; and I'm guessing you're from the south of Equestria, judging from your accent?" Applejack smiled and tipped her Stetson back, revealing her face fully to Thunder Light and said, "You'd be right in sayin' that, Mr…? Sorry; don't think I caught yer name." Thunder Light replied, "Oh, where are my manners? Name's Thunder Light; though you can just call me Light, Mrs Applejack." The orange coated, long blonde mane and tailed Earth pony flashed a smile at Thunder Light, saying, "Well, thank ya kindly, Light."

As Applejack and Thunder Light shared names and greetings, Rainbow Dash stayed where she had been standing when she had first talked to Applejack that day; she watched the two greeting each other and smile at the other. For some reason, Rainbow Dash felt a slight bitterness in her stomach and heart when she saw Applejack and Thunder Light smiling at each other; she had no idea what was causing the feelings in her stomach, but she felt a great bitterness to the Earth mare. Was she…_jealous _of Applejack? '_Why would I be jealous of Applejack, of all ponies?! I mean, sure; we've had our differences and such, but…jealous?! Why would I be jealous? Can't be because of…Thunder Light?!'_ thought Rainbow Dash, startled at the fact that she might be jealous of Applejack, and al because she was…what, just talking to Thunder Light?!

Rainbow Dash shook her head violently, trying to clear it of thinking Applejack was stealing Thunder Light away from her- _'Oh come on! I'm thinking she's stealing him away from me! What is wrong with me?!' _thought Rainbow Dash, almost screaming inside her head, and almost creaming on the outside; Rainbow Dash's front hooves instantly flew over her mouth to stop herself from suddenly and randomly screaming in front of Thunder Light and Applejack; she really didn't want to damage her reputation on Applejack, and she didn't want Thunder Light to think that she was different to what she was actually like.

Applejack and Thunder Light didn't seem to notice Rainbow Dash almost letting an outburst; when Rainbow Dash lowered her hoof from her muzzle, she saw that Applejack and Thunder Light were still talking, having slowly started walking away from Rainbow Dash and towards one of the apple trees that still had its apples on it. A disappointed and saddened feeling filled Rainbow Dash's heart; it was almost sure now, that Applejack was taking more and more of Thunder Light's attention away from her; and she was the one who had been showing him around Ponyville all day! With a bitter look on her face and in her heart, Rainbow Dash slowly followed behind Applejack and Thunder Light on hoof.

"Right; so, how do you do that 'apple-bucking' again?" asked Thunder Light, pausing for a moment to make sure that he got the phrase Applejack had told him right. Applejack flashed a smile at him and said, "Just watch and learn," as she trotted forward, closer to the tree and turned her back to it. She then bucked her hind legs back and struck the tree with a great force; the tree shook from the force of the strike and the apples, as well as the leafs, quivered slightly. It didn't take long before the apples began falling from their place on the tree and into the baskets at the foot of the tree. Once the bright green and red apples had settled into the baskets, Applejack turned to look at Thunder Light again and said, "'Right; your turn." Thunder Light nodded, before turning to another tree that still had the apples in it, and walking slowly towards it.

Rainbow Dash continued to watch bitterly as Applejack taught Thunder Light the basics of apple bucking, and she sat down on her haunches; this was going to take a bit of time…

* * *

Half an hour had passed since Rainbow Dash had first brought Thunder Light to Sweet Apple Acres to introduce him to Applejack; and she had spent most of the time watching Thunder Light being taught apple bucking by Applejack. Rainbow Dash had this feeling in her stomach and heart that there was something that had sparked between the Earth pony and the Pegasus stallion when they had first been introduced to each other, since they had been talking to each other and smiling at one another. Rainbow Dash sighed heavily and in an annoyed manner, tracing her hoof around in a circle in the dirt for what felt like the millionth time. She glanced over at the sun; it was slowly dipping behind the horizon, and Princess Luna had begun her work in rising the moon.

She sighed heavily again and got up to all four of her hooves, before quickly flying towards Applejack and Thunder Light, who had moved over to one of the trees Applejack had already bucked the apples out of and were talking idly. Rainbow Dash cleared her throat loudly, getting the attention of the Earth and Pegasus ponies. "Oh, sorry 'bout that there, Dash; got caught up talkin' to Light 'ere," said Applejack, gesturing with a hoof to Thunder Light, who smiled sheepishly at Rainbow Dash; the mare Pegasus glaring back at him. "It's alright, AJ; we just really need to get going. Got to get him back to Rarity's before she gets annoyed at him," said Rainbow Dash, still a slight bitterness tone to her words as she folded her forelegs while she hovered. Thunder Light smiled sheepishly at Applejack, saying, "Sorry, AJ; I'd better get goin'."

Applejack smiled and winked at Thunder Light, causing to stallion to blush slightly as Applejack said, "Well, you're welcome here any time, ya hear?" Thunder Light smiled and thanked Applejack one more time before he followed behind Rainbow Dash, who had lowered herself to the ground enough so that she could tap her hoof impatiently against the dirt ground. Applejack waved a hoof at Thunder Light as he and a secretly spiteful Rainbow Dash left Sweet Apple Acres behind as they headed back towards the centre of Ponyville.

* * *

**Ooh...a little triangle seems to be starting to form...**

**Anyway, this _will _be the last chapter until next Wednesday...then again, I'll probably go back on my word and there'll be another chapter up tomorrow. Word of advice; don't hold me to my word.**

**As always, R&R.**

**Nf991**


	10. The Welcome Party - Part 1

Chapter 10:

Rainbow Dash and Thunder Light walked in silence back to the Carrousel Boutique; Thunder Light because of the look on Rainbow Dash that told him he'd better not talk to Rainbow Dash at the moment, and Rainbow Dash because she didn't want to talk to Thunder Light at the moment, still thinking back to how Thunder Light had ignored her when he was talking with Applejack. Rainbow Dash still felt very bitter about what happened back at the Sweet Apple Acres, though she wasn't one to let her emotions take the better of her. Rainbow Dash just continued to fly towards the Carrousel Boutique, not glancing at Thunder Light like the times she might have, but would never admit to, given looks at Thunder Light. "Um, Rainbow Dash?" asked Thunder Light tentatively, trying to break the silence between the two of them and make amends between the two of them after the time he had spent accidently ignoring her for Applejack. "I'm, um-"

Rainbow Dash lifted a hoof, stopping him from finishing trying to apologies to her and she said, "Forget it; just…forget it…" as she continued to fly, leaving Thunder Light a few paces behind her, feeling bad for ignoring her; he really had to make it up to her somehow. With a soft sigh, Thunder Light followed the flying Rainbow Dash back to Rarity's place, not wanting to annoy the mare Pegasus any more than he already had. The two arrived at the front entrance of the Carrousel Boutique, but there wasn't something right; all the lights were out and there didn't seem to be anypony in the building. "I'd thought she'd be here; she'd never close up shop early if she could help it…" thought Rainbow Dash aloud as Thunder light looked at one of the windows at the top of the building, trying to keep an eye out in case Rarity was in fact in and would come to one of the windows.

"You're right; she normally would be still at her work at this sort of time," said Rainbow Dash in response, trying not to sound harsh at this point towards Thunder Light. Thunder Light glanced at Rainbow Dash with one eye, glad internally that she wasn't talking to him like he had just insulted her; which it might have done, since he'd blatantly ignored her when he'd been talking with Applejack. Rainbow Dash slowly trotted towards the door, and looked through one of the windows next to the door; she thought that she knew what was actually going on; they HAD visited Pinkie Pie during one of their visits around Ponyville, and the party crazy Earth pony HAD said she'd throw a party for the newcomer, and Pinkie Pie _always _wants to find an excuse to throw a party for anything….So, she was pretty sure what was really going on, and that Rarity wasn't out of the building at all….

"Hmm…c'mon; we'd better just make she that Rarity's not in, and not in fact pulling your leg…" said Rainbow Dash, looking back over her shoulder to look at Thunder Light. Thunder Light her a look that she knew all too well; it was a look she'd use a lot of the time, and it was the _'really?' _look. "Rarity, from what I remembered, isn't the type that is one to pull somepony else's leg. Unless she's changed in the time that I last saw here," said Thunder Light, lifting his hoof up to his chin and rubbing his chin slightly, giving the impression that he was thinking over something from long ago. Rainbow Dash rolled an eye back at the stallion, and even though he had ignored her during her last introduction to her friend, she just couldn't help but allow a smile to form by itself on her muzzle; Thunder Light just had that personality that she'd like and made her smile, no matter what had happened previously.

"Well, ponies can change," said Rainbow Dash with a slight smirk, and slowly pushed open the front door and gestured with a hoof for Thunder Light to go in first. Thunder Light, a little weary since he thought that Rainbow Dash was going to do something, slowly trotted forward, stopping just outside the door and looked over at Rainbow Dash; the cyan Pegasus simply did the same gesture with the hoof, telling him to go in. After a few seconds, Thunder Light did as he was wordlessly asked and walked into the Boutique, opening the door fully as he walked into the darkened main room; it was pitch black, thanks to the windows being blocked by the curtains, making it harder for Thunder Light to see what was inside the building.

Suddenly, all of the lights inside the building were thrown on and several ponies, Earth, Unicorn and a few Pegasi came out from behind several hiding places, including the desks in the room, the smaller ponies hiding behind the pony manikins, which was hard, since the manikins were supported a few inches above the floor, but they somehow managed to pull it off; and the rest of the ponies came out from various other hiding places. They all shouted out _'Surprise!' _as a banner came down from the roof of the lower floor, with the words 'Welcome to Ponyville, Thunder!' painted onto the banner in red paint. Thunder Light, taken aback by all of this and the suddenness of it all, took a step back in shock, a surprised look plain as day on his muzzle. "Wow…T…This is_ very_ unexpected," said Thunder Light, the surprise even evident in his voice as he tried to find it after the shock. Rainbow Dash, having walked in after him, was laughing softly as she walked up so she was at his side, and said, "Don't worry; Pinkie does this for every pony that's new to Ponyville; think of it…think of it as your initiation as a pony of Ponyville; even if it is for just a short time."

Thunder Light looked over at Rainbow Dash, his face still showing the shock he was still trying to comprehend, before he noticed Rarity, Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy amongst the ponies that had jumped out of the various hiding places, Rarity and Twilight Sparkle both having smiles on their faces; Twilight Sparkle more so than Rarity, most likely because of how close Rainbow Dash was standing to Thunder light, but she didn't want to ruin it for the moment; she'd most likely bring it back up again after most of the ponies had left after the party. Fluttershy, meanwhile, had a shym kind smile on her muzzle, her body language showing her nervousness and shyness; her head was low to the ground, her pink mane hanging over one of her eyes and one of her front hoofs twisting against the floor lightly.

"Welcome to your 'Welcome to Ponyville' party, Thunder Light!" came a sudden voice from the other side of Thunder Light to what Rainbow Dash was at, and suddenly Pinkie Pie appeared out of nowhere in front of Thunder Light, startling the stallion and he took a step back; but the door was already closed and he had backed into the door. He looked back at Pinkie Pie with her impossibly wide eyes, and he glanced a look over at Rainbow Dash, who was trying, but not successfully, suppressing a snigger, and he mouthed, 'How does she keep doing that?' Rainbow Dash finally burst out in a snigger-like laugh just as the music began to start; the music was coming out of several boom boxes at one of the sides of the building, provided by DJ PON-3, otherwise known as Vinyl Scratch, and another pony that Rainbow Dash had seen around Vinyl Scratch during a few of her performances; he was a Unicorn with a light blue coat, a few shades lighter than Rainbow Dash's own coat, with a spiky black mane that was similar to Thunder Light's, though the Unicorn's was all black. He had a black shirt on, with a white shirt underneath the black shirt with a white tie tied loosely around his neck and under the unbuttoned collar; the pair of black shades that he had on resting on the bridge of his muzzle, and his cutie mark consisting of three small stars; this was MC W1SH, or otherwise known as Neon Lights.

"'Right, party ponies; let's get this party started!" said Neon Lights loudly, a dark blue aura surrounding his horn as well as a record, that was lifted from behind the desk he and Vinyl Scratch had set up during the time Thunder Light had been shown around Ponyville by Rainbow Dash. The needle hit the record and music began to power out of the boom boxes, and several of the ponies began to move to what had been wordlessly been designated as the dance floor for the time the part was going on. Thunder Light smiled at the several ponies that seemed to be enjoying the party, even though it had only just started; they seemed to be so used to this happening whenever a new pony would come to Ponyville, that they'd just worked it into their daily lives.

"So, not a bad place to stay for a bit, eh?" asked Rainbow Dash, having to speak up over the loud music pouring out of the speakers as MC W1SH and DJ PON-3 cranked up the volume. Thunder Light, barely able to hear over the music, managed to hear what Rainbow Dash was trying to say to him and nodded, loudly saying, "Not a bad place at all." He then glanced over to the area that had been christened the dance floor for the evening, and probably well into the night, before he shook his head, and said what Rainbow Dash thought he said, "Maybe later…" as he began towards the tables that had masses of food on them, Rainbow Dash following beside him' partly because she was getting hungry and there was some pretty good looking food on that table; and that a few of her friends were by the table. Rainbow Dash then noticed that Applejack wasn't there; she was probably still on her way to the Carrousel Boutique, since enough time hadn't past between the time they'd left the barn to the time…they'd…uhh….

'_Ah, I'm bored now; too complicated to waste good brain power on. Besides, I'd rather waste that brain power on something more important; leave that to Twi or one of the others…' _thought Rainbow Dash, finally reaching the tables with the food and her friends; while Thunder Light glanced over the food, deciding what to pick and the other ponies, Earth, Unicorn and Pegasi alike, came over to greet him, introduce themselves and welcoming him to Ponyville, Rainbow Dash trotted over to her friends. "'Sup guys?" asked Rainbow Dash casually, picking up one of the pink-iced cupcakes as she passed the table and towards the girls; not because she'd like the colour, hay no; she wasn't the girly type. She just picked it up because it was the first thing she saw and she knew that the cupcakes at the Cakes' place tasted awesome!

"Not much, Dash; just sorting the library out. You know, the usual stuff," said Twilight Sparkle, wiping away a bit of pink icing from the corner of her mouth as she spoke. Rainbow Dash smirked at the newest princess of Equestria, before taking a bit out of the cupcake she had picked up; the sweet taste the sugar in the icing sending her taste buds into overdrive. "So, how've you been, showing Thunder Light around Ponyville?" asked Rarity, trying to keep her tone civil, though Rainbow Dash could hear the slightest tone of bitterness in Rarity's tone as she spoke. After finishing off the cupcake in her mouth and hoof, Rainbow Dash chuckled sheepishly as she said, "Yeah…didn't think Light would tell you about that…Look, I was just trying to make it up to Thunder Light after I crashed into him; I thought that showin' him 'round was the best thing to make it up to him. We didn't talk much; and before you ask, no, I didn't try and get any information out of him before you go and question me."

Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy looked between the two glaring mares, thinking it would be better for them to not say anything at the moment, at least not when the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife and use it to grease the cake tins…sounds like something Pinkie Pie would try to do. Rarity, after taking a few moments to check Rainbow Dash's eyes to see if she was being truthful; once she was sure that Rainbow Dash wasn't lying, Rarity straightened up and said, "That's good then; but remember what I said, as few things are better left unsaid…" Rainbow Dash rolled an eye, saluting Rarity jokily and says, "Yes, Ma'am; won't happen, Ma'am." Rarity smiled slightly at her friend, while Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy smirked discretely and shyly in Fluttershy's case; they always liked Rainbow Dash's sense of humour, especially when she was teasing one of their friend.

* * *

Meanwhile, as the four of the Mare 6 chatted with each other, Thunder Light had walked away from the food table after taking a few pieces of food from various places and of various healthiness, each bit of food more unhealthy than the last piece, and towards the opposite side of the Boutique/temporary party space for the evening. He looked around at the various ponies, each at various places in the room; some getting food, some dancing by either themselves or with a friend or two, and others just chatting with their friends about various stuff. Thunder Light smiled softly at the various pony faces; he was sure that he was going to like staying here for as long as he was allowed to. He was-

"Um, excuse me sir?" came a feminine voice from behind Thunder Light; after recovering from the initial shock, Thunder Light quickly turned around and faced the source of the voice; it was a Unicorn mare, who appeared to be about a year/year and a half younger than him, who had a yellow coat covering her body, with a mane and tail that was orange with red highlights going through both the tail and mane, giving the impression of flames coming from the back of the neck and the top of the head of the mare. Her eyes were a light orange colour, adding to the impression of the fire theme of the Unicorn; with her eyes shifting from side to side nervously, as were her hoofs, shifting from side to side. She glanced up at Thunder Light when he had turned around to face her, and she quickly looked away, a nervous aura surrounding her as Thunder Light looked at her.

"Yeah, Miss?" asked Thunder Light politely, smiling at the mare as looked at her. The mare smiled nervously back at the stallion, and she said, "U-Um…you're Mister Thunder Light, right? As in, _the _Thunder Light?" Thunder Light, having a slight feeling to where the mare was going, said, "Um…yes, I am…Why do you ask?" The mare, smiling with a slight hint of pride, said, "Well…My name's Fire Spark, and, um….firstly, I'd like to welcome you to Ponyville; and secondly, I was wondering…could you….sign something for me? As 'Shadow Walker'?" Thunder Light sighed heavily, and rubbed the back of his mane slowly, as he said, "Look, Miss Spark….I'm sorry, but I've stopped all that and left it behind. Those days are over…" Fire Spark, looking disheartened and disappointed, lowered her head and said, "O-Oh…OK then…I was just wondering…since I've been a fan of you back when you used to be one of them….got a picture and all…" as she slowly pulled a small picture from her side and holding it up in front of Thunder Light using her Unicorn magic, a yellow aura surrounding both her horn and the picture.

Thunder Light looked at the picture for a second, the images of old memories filling his icy blue eyes, before he closed his eyes and turned his head to the side. "But…I guess it was a long shot…" continued Fire Spark, moving the image from in front of Thunder Light and back into the satchel at her side. She turned and said, "Well…at least I got to meet you, Mr 'Shadow Walker', and welcome to Ponyville," as she smiled weakly at Thunder Light. Fire Spark then turned around and began to walk away. Thunder Light looked around; all of the ponies seemed to have something to do, and they didn't seem to be watching him…surely one couldn't hurt… "Wait," said Thunder Light, taking a step forward after Fire Spark as the mare turned around and looked at Thunder Light hopefully. Thunder Light looked around, and spotted a rouge quill sitting on one of the desks that Rarity hadn't put away; he trotted over to the desk and picked the quill up in his teeth, the feather end between his teeth as he walked back over to Fire Spark.

"Where do I sign?" asked Thunder Light, having been so used to signing autographs that he was able to speak with quills or pens in his mouth which was easily understandable. Fire Spark beamed and smiled happily, taking the picture out of her satchel again and putting it on the same desk where Thunder Light got the quill; Thunder Light walked over to the desk behind Fire Spark and next to her. He took the quill out of his mouth and held the quill in his front right hoof. _"To Fire Spark, always follow your dreams and never give up. Signed, Shadow Walker," _said Thunder Light aloud as he wrote down what he said, finishing with a final squiggle under the_ Walker,_ like he always used to back in the day….Thunder Light shook his head slightly, trying not to focus back on the memories and focus on what was happening in the present.

He smiled at the beaming Fire Spark and put the quill back on the desk as Fire Spark used her Unicorn magic to levitate the signed picture back into the satchel, a slight fan girl squeal passing her muzzle as she said, "Thank you, Mr Thunder Light." Thunder Light smiled slightly, before he smile dropped as he said, "Look; I'd really appreciate it if you didn't tell anypony about this…I'd rather not have old memories dug back up, if you know what I mean…" Fire Spark nodded, crossing a hoof over her chest where her heart was, before saying, "Cross my heart, hope to fly; stick a cupcake in my eye," finishing with putting a hoof over her closed right eye. Thunder Light tilted his head slightly, confused for a second, before shaking his head and smiling at Fire Spark.

"Thanks, Mrs Spark," said Thunder Light, smiling at the mare as Fire Spark smiled back, flashing a grin at Thunder Light he had seen countless mares had given him, back in the day. Thunder Light smirked slightly at the memories, before turning around, and gained a surprise that nearly scared him out of his coat; Rainbow Dash had broken off from her group of friends and had spotted Thunder Light signing what Fire Spark had asked him to sign, and she had come up behind Thunder Light to find what the stallion was doing. Rainbow Dash glared at the now nervous looking Thunder Light and she said, "…Well? You gunna tell me what that was all about or not?"

Thunder Light swallowed nervously, his eyes flashing around the room; the windows, the other ponies, the desks, and basically anywhere that wasn't Rainbow Dash's face or her rosy red, glaring eyes. "U-Um….nothing? W-Well, she just wanted directions to where the Sugarcube Corner was; I was just telling her where to go as best I could, and I was using that quill to draw a path for the mare. That's all," said Thunder Light, trying to keep his voice calm and level, though it was hard while he was looking into those rosy red, fierce, yet curiously beautiful eyes….

"Hmm….I don't believe you, but I don't want to embarrass you in front of everypony, especially during your welcoming party," said Rainbow Dash, backing off of Thunder Light with a slight shrug, and Thunder Light let out a silent sigh of relief; that was, until he heard Rainbow Dash add, "But don't think I won't bring this back up again, when it's just us." Thunder Light glanced nervously at Rainbow Dash, who smiled dangerously at Thunder Light, before saying, "Well, c'mon; it's your party, and you've barely done anything yet! C'mon!" as she gestured for Thunder Light to mingle with the other ponies.

* * *

**Yeah...looking forward to finally revealing what the secret is with Thunder Light.**

**As always, please R&R **

**Nf991**


	11. The Welcome Party - Part 2

Chapter 11:

Rainbow Dash looked over at Thunder Light, the stallion having found a few other stallions amongst the crowds of ponies standing at the side of the dance floor and was chatting away with them. Though Rainbow Dash couldn't escape the fact that there were a few ponies that kept glancing at Thunder Light, and she could see they had a slightly curious look in their eyes; she assured herself that it was just because he was new in Ponyville and they wanted to make sure they'd recognise him when they might bump into him in the middle of one of the streets. But Rainbow Dash just couldn't shake the feeling that was coming from the mares that kept looking at him…like they were, _admiring _him or something along those lines. Rainbow Dash shook her head violently, getting a few looks of confusion from the couple of Earth and Unicorns that were at the opposite side of the interior of the room; she hadn't done much in the entire party, apart from talk to her friends, a few other ponies she kinda knew, and idly took a few pieces of food that she would take from the tables when she felt like it.

'_OK, I've got to pull myself together; 'm starting to look like a nervous wreck," _thought Rainbow Dash to herself, regaining her composure and ruffling her mane to help calm herself down, thinking it was just her imagining the looks the mares of the crowd were giving Thunder Light. She did her best to ignore them, yet she just couldn't shake it. She straightened herself up when she saw Thunder Light giving the stallions he'd been talking to a brohoof to each of them, before saying bye to them and walking back to the other side of the Boutique. He walked over to the tables that had what remained of the food after several ponies had come over and picked at the plates for what they wanted, and looked over what was left; not noticing Rainbow Dash sneak up behind him.

"Hey!" said Rainbow Dash suddenly, chuckling in glee as she watched Thunder Light nearly just out of his coat from her sudden greeting. He turned around to look at the cyan coated, rainbow-mane Pegasus, taking deep breaths to calm his heart rate down, and he sighed shakily when he saw that it was Rainbow Dash. "Dash! Seriously, if you keep doing that, I'm gunna have a heart attack one of these days because of you!" said Thunder Light, trying to sound stern, but Rainbow Dash could still hear the shakiness in his tone as he tried to act all tough. "Yeah, yeah; either that or you'll learn to not be such a scaredy pony," chortled Rainbow Dash, smiling lightly as the stallion in front of her rolled an eye, yet managed to keep a smile on his face as he looked at her.

"Look, have you come to just annoy me or have you got an alternate method?" asked Thunder Light, though he didn't mean to seem so rude to the cyan Pegasus. Rainbow Dash took it badly and scowled at the stallion, saying, "Well, now that you mention it, I've been meaning to bring something back up again; what was with that Unicorn mare and you with that signing whatever?" Thunder Light tensed up slightly, and Rainbow Dash could feel the tension and nervousness radiating off of him; this just powered the reason behind her wanting to know what was going on with him. "Um…Uh…I-I-I'm not sure that I've got the time to explain it all," said Thunder Light nervously, pawing at the floor of the building, looking up at Rainbow Dash, into her glaring rosy red eyes. The mare in question just simply raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh, I'm sure we've got all the time in Equestria for you to explain it; so you'd better start now." Thunder Light looked around nervously, trying to find something, _anything, _that could distract Rainbow Dash and give him a couple more minutes to try and think of something to tell Rainbow Dash.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash, dear! Give Thunder Light here a little room to breathe!" said Rarity, suddenly appearing besides the two of them and pushing Rainbow Dash back a few paces gently, wrapping one of her front hoofs around the rainbow-mane covered neck of her friend. Rainbow Dash looked at Rarity with a suspicious look, before glancing at Thunder Light again, who was whistling nonchalantly as she said, "…I was just talking to him; nothing much, just idly chatter." Rarity smiled, seemingly forcefully, and said, "Of course! Though I'm sure that I heard a few Earth ponies over there that didn't hear of you performing a Sonic Rainboom back during the Best Young Flier's Competition," as she waved her hoof over to a couple of Earth ponies near one of the corners of the room.

"What?! You mean they haven't seen the most awesome-est thing that's ever happened in Equestrian history?" asked Rainbow Dash, eyes widening as she let out a mortified gasp of horror. Rarity nodded in agreement, acting as though she was horrified as well, and said, "I know! You'd better go and describe it to them! And don't skimp on the details; I'm sure they want to her every single detail of it!" She patted Rainbow Dash's shoulder as the confident mare Pegasus, once against swelling with her seemingly natural confidence and pride, lifted her head up high and trotted up to the pair of ponies that Rarity had pointed out to Rainbow Dash.

Thunder Light watched the cyan coated mare go, and he sighed deeply and silently in relief as he said, "Thanks, Rarity; got a little too close for comfort back there; Celestia knows what I would have done if you hadn't shown up and stopped her." The Unicorn smiled at her Pegasus cousin and said, "You're welcome, Thunder; though I suggest that you be careful now; Rainbow Dash is a fan of the Wonderbolts, and if she found out about you-" Thunder Light lifted a hoof up to her muzzle, blocking her mouth lightly as he looked around, making sure nopony was listening in to the conversation between the relatives over the loud music; but no, every pony was busy either talking in their own friendship groups or dancing to MC W1SH and DJ PON-3's loud, quality music. "Sorry," said Rarity lightly, her voice being muffled from Thunder Light's hoof. "It's fine; just a little edgy to make sure that no pony overhears," said Thunder Light in apology as he lowered his hoof from Rarity's muzzle and back to the ground again. "It's fine, Thunder dear; though I do mean what I say; Dash will find out about you, and well…we'll see how she reacts to you then…"

Thunder Light sighed deeply and looked down, his ears starting to throb lightly at the music was slowly getting louder; somepony had probably asked one of the DJ's to 'crack up the volume', to coin a phrase. Thunder Light tried to smile at Rarity, but only managed to twitch the corner of his mouth for a moment, to which Rarity returned with a comforting and warm smile of her own. She then turned around after hearing somepony calling her name, and she bid goodbye to Thunder Light again as she left, disappearing between a couple of dancing Earth ponies. Thunder Light shook his head slightly, muttering, "'Lone again…" as he walked towards one of the sides of the Boutique, to one of the windows that had been left partly open, letting in the weak brightness of the moon Princess Luna had fully brought up sometime during the party's life.

"Hey," said a voice behind him, breaking his concentration of looking out of the window; he recognised the voice, since it wasn't very hard to remember a Southern accent and there was only one pony he knew that had an accent like that… "Hey, Applejack," said Thunder Light, taking his head from behind the curtain and smiling at the Southern Earth pony. Applejack returned the smile kindly and tilted her hat forward in greeting with her front right hoof, shifting it back to allow her full face to be seen by the stallion as she asked, "How y'all enjoyin' yer wlecomin' party?" Thunder Light looked around the dimly lit room, just barely enough light in the room to allow each pony to see where they were going and who they were dancing with; a small smile on Thunder Light's muzzle as he said, "Been actually pretty good; not expecting it at all, so that just makes it all the better." Applejack grinned slightly, before glancing at the dance floor and asking, "How'd you fancy yer chances on that der dance floor?" as she gestured a hoof over to an empty spot on the dance floor.

Thunder Light glanced at the empty dance floor spot, before glancing at his partly bandaged hoof and muttering, "Surely a few dances'll be alright…" He looked up at Applejack and smiled at the country pony, saying, "Sure, why not? Though be warned, I'm not that good of a dancer…" Applejack smiled comfortingly as she gently patted the stallion's shoulder as she said, "It be fine, Light; y'all get a hang of it as y'all go." She then walked beside Thunder Light as the two began to walk towards the vacant spot on the dance floor; some of the ponies that were already on the dance floor shifting slightly to the sides to give the pair approaching the dance floor.

* * *

Meanwhile, behind the records and boom boxes, Vinyl Scratch and Neon Lights were sorting through the vast amounts of records they had behind the boom boxes that they had to play before the night was over; they had to keep the crowd entertained, right? "Yo, Vinyl; think we should play this by the end 'night?" asked Neon Lights, pulling out one of the records that was a few away from being at the top of one of the few piles. Vinyl turned away from the crowd of dancing ponies, and turned to her partner/fellow DJ and tilted her glasses down, her bright red eyes showing and a smirk forming on her white coated muzzle, saying, "Awesome choice, Lights; we'll play it in a bit, though I think we'd better play a slow song in a mo'.Couple; 12 o'clock," as she gestured to a pair of approaching ponies on the dance floor.

Neon Lights, using his magic to hold the record he had picked up and keeping it behind the boom boxes, and looked up from behind the spinning records, lowering his glasses as Vinyl Scratch righted the glasses back onto her eyes; Neon Light's baby blue eyes looking across the dance floor to the pair of approaching ponies Vinyl was discreetly gesturing to while she scratched the records. Neon Light's eyes finally landed on the pair Vinyl was pointing at; one was an Earth pony with an orange coat, and long blonde mane and tail that both had a band around them to keep them from flowing all over the place. A Stetson sat on her head, her bright green eyes looking around with a hint of excitement in them; beside her, was the stallion of the hour, Thunder Light; Neon and Vinyl had been told the name of the Pegasus by Pinkie Pie. Thunder Light, with his midnight black coat covering his body and feathers covering his wings, both bandaged and normal in the same shade as the coat. His black and white contrasting mane standing out against the blackness of his coat, and his icy blue eyes searching the dance floor.

Neon Light's mouth twisted into a small smirk as he turned to look at Vinyl Scratch, pushing his glasses back into place over his eyes again as he said, "Likin' what you're thinking about, Scratch. Next song up, a slow one." Vinyl Scratch nodded with a smirk on her muzzle and a mischievous glint in her eyes behind her glasses as she returned to keeping the needle on the records, saying, "Only the one mind, Lights; can't do anything that'll make us look like we've gone all sappy n' all." Neon Lights smirked and said, "Wouldn't have it any other way, Scratch."

* * *

Rainbow Dash, having found out that Rarity had been lying-well, _stretching the truth, _thought Rainbow Dash-about the Earth ponies not knowing about her Sonic Rainboom, and it had turned out that everypony in Ponyville and Cloudsdale had learned of her public Sonic Rainboom through the magazines of Cloudsdale called _Pegasi Monthly _that had reached Ponyville a few days after the Sonic Rainboom. Anyway, after trying to recover herself from making herself looking like a fool, Rainbow Dash, fuming and with an angered glint in her eyes, began walking stiffly across the Boutique, trying to find Rarity.

Suddenly, however, the change of song caught her attention; it changed from the ear-splitting, fast paced music of Scratch and Lights, to a much slower paced song, much softer than the other songs that had been on the previous time of the evening. That was what caught Rainbow Dash's attention the most; what could have possessed Vinyl Scratch and Neon Lights, two party ponies that were notorious for liking fast paced and loud-pumping music, to play slow, lovey-dovey song? When Rainbow Dash turned to look at the dance floor, looking for an explanation for the change of song, but instead, she felt her heart drop and an intense emotional pain shot through her entire system, centring at her heart, making it feel like it was being crushed in an iron fist.

In the centre of the dance floor, amongst a few couples doing the slow dance with one another, was Thunder Light, and…Applejack?! _'What the HAY is Applejack doing dancing with Thunder Light?!'_ thought Rainbow Dash in a fury, feeling her muscles tensing and feeling as though she was ready to attack anything that came close to her; she had to fight to keep herself from lunging forward and tackling Applejack away from Thunder Light. _'Why is SHE dancing with him?! I'm the one who showed him around Ponyville; ME! B…But why do I feel like this?' _thought Rainbow Dash in desperation as she continued to watch her best friend and the newest stallion in town slow dancing together, their necks crossing one another's as they closed their eyes.

Rainbow Dash suddenly felt something wet slowly crossing down her cheek; she wiped her hoof over the cheek and looked at it, shocked to find it to be a clear liquid. Was she, Rainbow Dash, crying? Rainbow Dash shook her head firmly, trying to tell herself that she would NEVER, _EVER,_ cry, especially over something as so stupid as…_that! _Shaking her head, she felt her eyes getting watery and she quickly left through the front door, not expecting anypony to come after her or even see her walk out of the building. Rainbow Dash closed the door of the Boutique behind her, her breaths coming out shakily as she tried to keep herself from shedding tears and keep her composure. _'I should probably leave…don't want the love birds' evening to be ruined by me…' _thought Rainbow Dash bitterly and in spite, as she unfolded her wings and looked up at the crisp, clear night-time sky over Equestria and in the direction of Cloudsdale.

"Hey; where d'you think you're goin'?" asked a masculine voice from behind her; Rainbow Dash knew that voice anywhere, and she didn't even have to turn around to say, "What're you doing out here, Thunder Light? Don't want to interrupt that date of yours…" in an extremely bitter tone, which surprised the stallion beyond the times he had been surprised by this one mare; why was she being so bitter to him? "Dash…What's wrong?" asked Thunder Light softly, taking a step closer to the mare. But he took an immediate step back when the mare turned to face him, and he saw the angered look in her eyes. "One, don't call me Dash anymore; and two, what's wrong? What's wrong?! Why're you dancing with Applejack?! I…I, m-mea….I mean…why?!"

As Rainbow Dash continued to rant on, Thunder Light could see something changing in her eyes as she glared at him; as she spoke, the layers of anger began to shed away, layer by layer until Thunder Light saw an emotion that he'd rarely ever seen in this fierce Rainbow Dash; it was…sadness and despair? "Look, Rainbow Dash," started Thunder Light, having grabbed an opportunity to speak when Rainbow Dash paused to take a breath, "if you think there's something going on between me and Applejack in there….there ain't; I mean, sure she's sweet and kind, and a bit good lookin'….but, I just don't have that…feeling with you, you know? That feeling you get when you're falling in love with someone…"

Rainbow Dash, panting slightly as she tried to recover her breath from the first part of her rant she had planned, paused for a second to take what Thunder Light was telling her to sink in. "So…there isn't anything going on between you and Applejack?" asked Rainbow Dash slowly, wanting to make sure that he wasn't lying and that she was hearing what he was saying correctly. Thunder Light nodded slowly, saying, "Yep; were just friends, I've told her and she's cool with that. Now, not to sound rude or anything, but can you stop acting like a filly and come back in? The party won't be the same without you; the most awesome-est pony in all of Ponyville." He prayed that his quick thinking add-on was enough to keep Rainbow Dash from attacking him from calling her a filly.

It barely was enough; Rainbow Dash glared at Thunder Light and looked as though she was going to bite his head off, when she stopped herself and allowed herself to think back; she _had _kinda acted like a filly that hadn't had her way and had stormed off, but she would never admit it to anypony that she thought that. She looked up at Thunder Light, at first with a glare, but it slowly began to form into a sheepish and apologetic smile as she rubbed the back of her mane, looking away slightly as she said, "Yeah…I-I'm sorry about that….I guess I'm still welcome into the party?" Thunder Light smiled softly, and said, "Of course, Dash."

Rainbow Dash smiled thankfully at Thunder Light, and she felt her heartbeat picking up; she felt the iron fist that had been gripping her heart since she'd first seen Thunder Light and Applejack dancing together had finally let go, allowing her spirits to soar again; the way she like it. "Thanks, Light," said Rainbow Dash softly, slowly trotting forward and past Thunder Light, before the stallion stopped her and asked, "Um…Dash? Do you, wanna…y'know…have a dance?" Rainbow Dash looked at Thunder Light, her eyes widening slightly at the sudden question from the stallion, who was now pawing nervously at the earth with his perfectly working hoof, and she just…felt this pull inside her that wanted to accept the offer that was present to her.

"Sure; can't leave you alone on the dance floor, now can I?" said Rainbow Dash, smirking at the stallion as she gently flicked her tail against Thunder Light's cheek slightly, chuckling teasingly at the stallion's reaction. Thunder Light recovered and followed Rainbow Dash back into the building; the other ponies having been too busy to notice the most notorious Pegasus mare and the stallion of the hour had gone outside.

* * *

**Forget to mention that in the previous chapter, Fire Spark belonged to ImmaRainbowDash.**

**So...one problem seems to be solved; but then it wouldn't be a good story if I left it on this with so many unanswered questions? All shall be revealed soon, in later chapters.**

**As always, please R&R**

**Nf991**


	12. The Hospital and Cloudsdale

Chapter 12:

A few days had passed since Thunder Light's welcoming party, and on the third morning since the party, Rainbow Dash was flying over Ponyville, looking down at the buildings and the ponies walking around the town; from Rainbow Dash's height, the buildings looked like toys and the ponies looked like ants to her. Rainbow Dash, keeping her wings flapping lightly to keep her moving forward and at the height, allowed her mind to wander; to old memories with her friends, to tricks that she had to perfect for the next Wonderbolt show in Cloudsdale later that day, and…Thunder Light's welcoming party a few days back. The cyan Pegasus wondered for a second why her mind was letting her go back to that memory, but she thought because…well…it was _fun._

Rainbow Dash smiled softly against the gentle breeze, thinking back to the latest welcoming party; she and Thunder Light had danced together after they had walked back into the Carrousel Boutique, and by the time they had walked back into the shop, Vinyl Scratch and Neon Lights had changed the slow song to a more upbeat, louder song; something that suited them way more than the other song they had on when Rainbow Dash had stormed out. The cyan Pegasus was grateful that nopony seemed to notice that she had stormed out in a huff, since she really had to keep her reputation up. They'd dance, they'd laughed throughout the night and they'd kept each other company; and Rainbow Dash actually really enjoyed herself, more than most of the welcome parties she had gone to and almost as much as her own welcome party and Twilight's.

The multi-coloured mane mare soon found the place she had been coming to visit for the past few days; the Carrousel Boutique. She had made plans to meet Thunder Light there after she'd completed a few of her weather duties set by the weather patrol back in Cloudsdale, and a few of her tricks she was going to show the Wonderbolts next time she had the chance. She didn't know why, but whenever she was away from Thunder Light, she felt as though there was this….pull inside her that yearned and pulled at her emotions, and when she actually was spending time with Thunder Light, the yearning was content and seemed to sleep inside her; she hadn't had these feelings inside her before, and even after she'd been to the Ponyville Hospital, the Nurse hadn't found anything wrong with her blood, nor with her heartbeat or anything else for that matter.

Rainbow Dash shook her head, trying to forget how annoyed and angered she felt when the Nurse pony had accused her of just making things up, but she held back then and left the Hospital. The cyan mare finally landed softly on the ground outside Rarity's shop/house, and walked towards the door. But she noticed something just as she was about to knock a hoof against the door; there was a note attached to the side of the door that she was about to knock, much like the time before Thunder Light's welcoming party. She slowly pulled the note off of the door and examined it.

_Sorry, I am not in at the moment; at the hospital with cousin._

_Be back soon,_

_Rarity._

Rainbow Dash's eyes flashed over the note one last time, before her eyes slowly widened; was she talking about Thunder Light? Well, there weren't any other cousins of Rarity in town that she knew of, so she had to be talking about Thunder Light. _'He's probably managed to persuade Rarity to take him to take a look at his wings; wanting to get back into the air,' _thought Rainbow Dash, remembering the number of times he had said how he missed being back in the air, stretch his wings to make sure the muscles in his wings hadn't stiffened up and prevented him from flying for longer. Rainbow Dash smirked softly as she put the note back on the door for anyone that might come up to Rarity's house to ask for her, thinking about what Thunder Light's expression would be like if he said that he was grounded for even longer; something along the lines of mortified and pure horror.

Rainbow Dash chortled softly as her mind worked out what the expression might look like, before she decided to check on Thunder Light and Rarity; she did say to the stallion that she'd meet up with him, and that didn't matter if he was in the Boutique or if he was in the Hospital. She turned towards the direction of the Hospital, and flapped her wings, heading towards the Ponyville Hospital at a medium speed. She passed several ponies, Earth, Unicorn and a few Pegasi, as she headed towards the Hospital, giving her a few smiles and greetings as they passed her, Rainbow Dash giving them a few greetings as she flew past them.

She arrived at the entrance of the Ponyville Hospital, and landed on the ground, flapping her wings a few times before folding them against her body gently and entered the hospital. She looked around the main reception of the Hospital, seeing a few ponies that looked a little green in colour around their face, and another couple of ponies that looked as though they had colds or something else along those lines. She spotted Nurse Redheart behind the desk at the far side of the reception, and the cyan Pegasus made a bee-line towards the desk. "Hi," said Rainbow Dash casually, arriving at the reception desk after another Pegasus in front of her walked away from the desk, the other Pegasus having its right wing in a white cast.

Nurse Redheart looked up from the clipboard she had in her hoof, her blue eyes landing on Rainbow Dash and said, "Ah, Mrs Dash, if I remember correctly? Still thinking you've got somethin' that you can't explain and can't be found?" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes in annoyance, remembering it was Nurse Redheart that had taken her pulse and had examined her when she had gone to the hospital last time. "No, actually," replied Rainbow Dash sourly, and added, "I'm actually here to check to find somepony here; a friend of mine and her cousin." Redheart looked at Rainbow Dash curiously for a second, before flicking a bit of her mane behind the nurse's hat on her head, and looked through the clipboard, saying, "What're their names?"

"A mare Unicorn and a stallion Pegasus; the Unicorn is Rarity and the Pegasus is Thunder Light," replied Rainbow Dash, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible to try and find Thunder Light and Rarity. Redheart nodded slightly, before looking through the clipboard for a second, running one of her front hoofs down the clipboard before stopping halfway down the clipboard and said, "Yep, they got here 'bout an hour after sun-up; said they were going to check up on Thunder Light's wings, see if wing had healed up well and was fully healed and ready to start flyin' again." Rainbow Dash nodded, before tapping her front hoof on the desk impatiently, saying, "And what room number are they in? I really need to see 'em."

Nurse Redheart glared at Rainbow Dash for a second, before moving her hoof along one of the side of the clipboard, before saying, "Room number fifty one; along the corridor on the right, fifth on the left," as she gestured to the corridor on the right side of the reception desk. Rainbow Dash nodded, thanking the nurse pony, before walking down the corridor and muttering, "Lighten up much…" quietly as to not let the Earth pony nurse hear what she said. She then quietly walked down the brightly lit corridor, thanks to the many windows that led down the room she was looking for. After a few more minutes of walking down the quiet corridor, the only sounds being her footfall against the clean tile floor and the odd coughing coming from a few of the rooms she passed.

Finally, she arrived at the room that had a big, golden '50' painted onto the door, level with her eyes. Rainbow Dash lifted her hoof up and gently knocked on the door, loud enough for it to echo softly throughout the corridor. She waited for a few seconds, waiting for somepony inside to let her in. "Who is it?" came a feminine voice from behind the door, and Rainbow Dash recognised it as Rarity's voice, to which the Pegasus replied with, "It's me, Rare; just coming to make sure Thunder Light's alright." There was a pause of silence for a few seconds, in which a soft series of muttered exchanges, before she heard the voice of Thunder Light say, "It's fine; Dash, c'mon in." Rainbow Dash, a little suspicious about what all the muttering was about before Thunder Light said she could come in, slowly pushed open the door and closed it behind her, turning around to face the ponies in the room.

Rarity was standing beside Thunder Light, with the stallion lying down on his front on the hospital bed, with an Earth pony doctor that she had seen a few times around the hospital when she was stuck in here herself, taking off the few bandages that Zecora had put on him when he had first arrived at Ponyville and the Everfree Forest. The pony Doctor seemed to be vaguely impressed by the hoof-work of the bandages, and as he took off the last bandages around the base of the wing, he pushed his hoof gently against the base of the wing; testing it to see if the muscles were healed enough and that Thunder Light didn't react enough for it to make the pony Doctor think that it wasn't healed properly.

Thunder Light did his best to stay still, knowing the pony Doctor was trying to test to see if his wing muscles were healed enough for him to fly. To try and distract himself and get it over with quicker, Thunder Light turned his head to look at Rainbow Dash and asked, "So, Dash; how've you been holding up?" Rainbow Dash shrugged a shoulder, saying, "Been holding up good, thanks; haven't been doing much, though I'm gunna go to Cloudsdale in a bit, 'cause there's a Wonderbolt show on. So…maybe if you're wings are all good, I could take you on a tour of Cloudsdale and we could watch the Wonderbolt show afterwards?" She wasn't sure if her mind was playing tricks on her or something, but she thought that she saw Thunder Light look away for a split second, his front left hoof twitching slightly; though he made sure that the pony Doctor didn't see that, otherwise he might have took it as a sign of pain as the pony Doctor continued to examine his wing. "Um, Rainbow Dash, dear? I'm not sure Thunder would li-" started Rarity, though she was cut off.

"Sure; I'll go, just as sure as I get the all clear. Speaking of which, how's the wing, Doc?" asked Thunder Light, interrupting Rarity midsentence as he looked up at the pony Doctor. "Hmm…" the pony Doctor muttered, pressing his hoof against the base of the once-injured wing before he took it away, stepping away and looking at an x-ray he had taken a few minutes before Rainbow Dash had knocked on the door, and had just finished developing. "Well…it appears that your muscles have managed to heal again; whoever bandaged you to start with was smart, as if it would have been any later, the muscles would have taken even longer to heal than they did. But, I can't seem to find anything wrong with your wing muscles; just don't do any flying involving excess speed or any dangerous manoeuvres." Thunder Light nodded at the pony Doctor, before he slowly got out off of the bed and onto the floor of the hospital room, the pony Doctor walking past Rainbow Dash and exited the room.

"Alright; so you still up to go to that Cloudsdale?" asked Thunder Light, fluttering both of his wings softly to try and get the feathers of his once bandaged wing back to normal, as they were currently stuck to the skin of the wing from the pressure of the bandages. Rainbow Dash nodded, smiling eagerly and with a glint of excitement in her eyes as she said, "Yep; as always. Now c'mon; we're gonna be late for the show." Rainbow Dash then turned and was about to go out of the door when Rarity said, "Um, Rainbow dear? Could you wait outside for a moment please; I wish to speak to Thunder Light before you go up to Cloudsdale." Rainbow Dash looked back and nodded, just in time to see Thunder Light roll an eye softly and said, "I'll be out in a minute Dash." Rainbow Dash nodded, smirking as she said, "Don't take long; we'll miss the opening of the 'Bolt show."

With that, Rainbow Dash walked outside of the hospital room, Rarity closing the door behind her and turning to look at Thunder Light. Outside of the door, Rainbow Dash sat on her haunches a few feet away from the door, looking up and down the corridor to see if there were any ponies walking down the corridor or any of the doors on either side of the corridor. Once she had looked down either side of the corridor a couple of times, she quietly got up and gently pressed the side of her head against the door, trying to hear what the two were saying behind the closed door. _"What are you thinking, going to Cloudsdale, when there's a Wonderbolt show being performed?!" _she heard Rarity's furious and desperate voice say, the closed door muffling the voice enough for Rainbow Dash to have to press her head against the door in order to hear what she was saying.

"_Look, I'm just going to visit Cloudsdale and maybe a few Pegasi," _said Thunder Light's voice, again, being muffled through the door; Rainbow Dash then heard the sound of something getting dragged up from the floor and into the air. _"And what, dare I ask, is in the satchel?" _asked Rarity's voice, the slightest hint of annoyance in her tone. There was silence for a few minutes, and the multi-coloured mane Pegasus thought she was missing some of the conversation; causing her to press her head against the door slightly harder. _"You cannot be serious?!" _shouted Rarity's voice suddenly, startling Rainbow Dash and causing her to scramble back from the door, thinking they had heard her; but when the door didn't open after a few minutes, Rainbow Dash quickly moved back to the door and pressed her ear against the wooden door harder, trying to listen back into the conversation.

"_I thought you gave up on that now; that you left it in the past," _said Rarity's voice, though it was a bit softer than the last outburst that Rainbow Dash heard, and still left a slight ringing in her ears. _"I have given up on it; I never want to again. I'm just going to hand this back to them; I've tried before and they've refused, but this time, I'm not going to give up until they take it off me," _came Thunder's voice, his voice being softer than Rarity's, like he was talking while he was looking back at old times; causing confusion in the mind of Rainbow Dash. _'What the buck are they talking about? 'This'? What's in the satchel? What isn't Thunder Light telling me?' _thought Rainbow Dash, almost screaming the questions in his mind. But she soon had to draw her mind from the questions and think about them later; she heard Thunder Light's voice say, _"Listen, I'd better get going; Dash is probably getting bored out there," _followed by the sound of hoofs hitting the floor, getting closer and louder as they approached the door.

Rainbow Dash 'eek!'d from the suddenness of the footfall, and quickly scrambled away from the door and got to her hoofs, losing her balance for a second before she righted herself and lent against the wall on the side of the door; acting like she had been standing there, leaning against the wall, for all the time Thunder Light and Rarity had been talking inside the room. The door opened up, and Thunder Light walked out, looking around for Rainbow Dash and spotting her when he looked to the side of the door. He smiled at the mare and said, "Alright; so you ready to get going now?"

Rainbow Dash turned her head around to look at Thunder Light and smirked softly, getting off from leaning on the wall and said, "Sure, but we'd better get a move on; don't want to miss the show, now do we?" With that, Rainbow Dash trotted towards the exit of the hospital, with Thunder Light following after the mare. Once Thunder Light had checked out of the hospital at the main desk, he and Rainbow Dash walked out of the hospital, and into the crisp, warm air of the day. Thunder Light took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, as he slowly opened his wings; saying, "We'll see now if I can actually fly so soon…" as he slowly began to flap the wings. Rainbow Dash looked at Thunder Light, watching his wings flap softly as she secretly hoped that he could fly against after his a wing being kept so long in bandages.

Thunder Light flapped his wings slightly harder, and he took off of the ground a few feet; though he landed back on the ground after a few seconds. "Just have to keep it steady; need to get them used to it again, and build up the muscle strength," commented Thunder Light under his breath as he tried to get himself into the air again; he got off of the ground after a few seconds, and managed to hold it this time. Rainbow Dash smirked and flapped her wings as well, getting into the air after a few seconds and flying around Thunder Light, saying, "C'mon, slow poke; we're gunna miss the whole show at this rate!" With that final word, Rainbow Dash began flying at a high rate towards the cloud city; Thunder Light trailing behind her, making sure to keep his speed down as to not cause any unnecessary damage to the recently healed wings.

The two Pegasi slowly made their way towards Cloudsdale, Rainbow Dash leading Thunder Light, since he hadn't even seen Cloudsdale yet; Rainbow Dash had thought it would be best to show him the cloud city after she'd showed him Ponyville. Thunder Light flew at a steady pace, while Rainbow Dash flew circles around him, literally; she switched between leading him towards Cloudsdale and flying quickly around him, trying to tease him about not being able to fly at higher speeds. Thunder Light simply rolled an eye at Rainbow Dash's antics, and returned her smirk with a smile of his own; knowing she was trying to tease him, but he muttered to himself, "When I can fly again at my normal speed, I'll show her…" The two eventually spotted Cloudsdale; the cloud city with several buildings made out of the clouds and pillars holding up some of the older looking buildings, giving them a regal vibe. "That's Cloudsdale; now c'mon, we've got to get going to the stadium!" said Rainbow Dash eagerly, before she zoomed off towards the cloud city, with Thunder Light trailing behind her.

When the hoofs of both of the Pegasi made contact with the clouds, Rainbow Dash lead Thunder Light across the clouds and towards the stadium of Cloudsdale, several Pegasi passing them as they too headed towards the stadium. But when they got to one of the entrances of the stadium, Thunder Light saw that there were only a few Pegasi already in the stadium; looking behind him, he saw a lot more Pegasi heading towards the stadium. He looked around to face Rainbow Dash again, he saw her shrug and said, "I wanted to make sure we got good seats." Thunder Light rolled his eye slightly, though he had to agree that he would do the same thing. However, he had something he had to do first…. "Um, would it be alright if you save me a seat? I've…gotta go to the little colt's room before; you know, so I don't have to miss any of the show…" said Thunder Light, to which Rainbow Dash looked at him for a second before rolling her eyes, replying, "Fine; but don't take too long; I can't save you a seat forever."

"Thanks," said Thunder Light, flashing a smile briefly at the mare before he quickly made he flapped his wings and flew down the side of the interior of the stadium; Rainbow Dash flying up to a set of cloud seats on the other side of the stadium. When he was sure that nopony was watching him, Thunder Light quickly went below the stadium which sat in mid-suspension, and into one of the lower entrances of the stadium; the same entrance that Rainbow Dash and the other Peagsi came out of when it was their turn to compete in the Best Young Flier's competition. He looked around, making sure there wasn't anyone around before he slowly trotted through a door and towards the changing room facilities of the Cloudsdale stadium. He rounded a corner of the light blue coloured walls, and saw the two changing rooms; the mares' and the stallions', in front of which, two Pegasi security guards, making sure no paparazzi could get into the changing rooms and get dirt on the Wonderbolts; one of the Pegasi had a pure white coat, with a short brown tail and a short brown mane, with side burns running down the sides of his head a few inches. His light brown eyes spotted Thunder Light, and he nudged the other Pegasus stallion, who had a dark grey coat, with equally short, black mane and tail to that of the other stallion. The second security pony looked at Thunder Light with light blue eyes; both of the security stallions wearing dark blue jackets with light blue collars and the sleeves rolled up on their forelegs, revealing a light blue shirt interior.

Thunder Light took a deep breath, and slowly walked towards the two security stallions, the stallions keeping an eye on the approaching Thunder Light. When he was a few feet in front of the stallions and the changing room doors, the white coated stallion took a step forward, saying, "Sorry, kid; the Wonderbolts don't sign autographs until after the show." Thunder Light rolled his eyes, and he replied, "Like I need their autographs; I just need to see them for a minute." The grey coated stallion chuckled dryly for a few seconds, before taking a step forward like the first stallion and saying, "Yeah; that ain't gunna happen, kid." Thunder Light sighed heavily in annoyance and rubbed the side of his head with his hoof, and said, "Look; it's important for the Wonderbolts to hear this; just tell them that 'Shadow Walker' wants to see 'em. They'll know what I'm talking about."

The two stallions looked at each other for a second, like they were trying to wordlessly decide on what to do. Finally, the white coated stallion said, "Whiplash; keep an eye on 'im." Whiplash nodded, saying, "Got it, Manerick." The white coated stallion named Manerick walked through the stallion changing rooms and closed the door behind him. Thunder Light looked at Whiplash, before saying, "I'm guessing that you're new to this?" Whiplash didn't make any head movements; only saying, "Been working as a security pony for the Wonderbolts for a year now." Thunder Light nodded, before muttering, "That explains that then…"

A few minutes of silence passed before Manerick came out of the stallion changing rooms, a surprise look on his face. "You can go in, Thunder Light; I am sorry about the wait," said Manerick as Thunder Light nodded at him, saying, "Don't worry 'bout it; just following procedure." With that, Thunder Light walked past the two stallions and pushed open the stallion's changing room doors, closing them behind him. He looked around at the tilte-covered walls and floor of the changing room, hearing the sound of running water, most likely a shower, and the voices of several stallions talking to one another; talking about flight plans and manoeuvres for the upcoming show. He took a deep breath, and shakily exhaled, and he quietly trotted across the tiled floor, towards the sound of voices. Thunder Light waited around a corner of where the source of the voices were coming from, and he heard one of the voices say, "Alright, so we're all clear on what the manoeuvres are for this performance? It's Team 1 entering first, performing three continuous barrel-rolls with the smoke trail covering the entrance of Team 2. When they're out, we'll merge together to form the Combined Team, where we'll-"

The voice would have continued if Thunder Light hadn't stepped around the corner, and into the part of the changing rooms that the stallion members of the Wonderbolts were having a final debriefing on the show. Soarin, standing up and pointing to a display board with several wiggly lines on it, with the other stallions of the Wonderbolts, Fire Streak, Lightning Streak, Rapidfire, Silver Lining and Wave Chill, all putting on their Wonderbolt uniform, standing around, listening to what Soarin' was saying to them. But when Thunder Light stepped out from behind the corner, Soarin' spotted him first and slowly trailed off; the other Wonderbolts catching on and turning around to see what was distracting the co-Captain of the Wonderbolts. Thunder Light looked around quietly at the stallions, before Soarin' took a step forward, and smiled goofily, saying, "Long time, no see Thunder Light; or should that be, 'Shadow Walker'?"

* * *

**Finally! Longest chapter so far; what do you think?**

**More shall be revealed in later chapters, before you leave bad reviews.**

**As always, please R&R.**

**Nf991**


	13. Old Friends

Chapter 13:

"Soarin', and I said when I left; I don't want to be called that anyone. I'm just Thunder Light," said Thunder Light softly, taking another step forward as the pie loving co-Captain of the Wonderbolts approached Thunder Light.

Soarin' smiled goofily at him, before seeing the seriousness in Thunder Light's icy blue eyes and the smile left the usually chirpy stallion; Soarin' sighed and said, "You still feel bad about what happened in Saddle Arabia, are you?"

Thunder Light's muscles tensed at the mention of that event, and Soarin' could feel the inner pain and sadness radiating off of Thunder Light as said stallion looked away, blinking rapidly as to stop any tears from falling down his cheeks; he still didn't want the Wonderbolts to see him as weak.

"Look; let's forget about that and try to make start this all again. So, Thunder; how've you been?" said Fire Streak, the orange with very light red streaked mane stallion getting up and approaching Thunder Light with a kind smile.

Thunder Light smiled weakly back at Fire Streak, wiping away any evidence that there might have been tears in his eyes; he had remembered that Fire Streak was one of the kindest members of the Wonderbolts, since he was always there to help him back in the earlier days.

"'m doing fine, Fire; thanks for asking," said Thunder Light with a smile, Fire Streak smiling and lifting a hoof up; Thunder Light replying with giving Fire Streak a bro-hoof.

Soarin' smiled one of his signature goofy smiles as he said, "Yeah, sorry to bring that up the moment you entered, Light; how's life been treating you the past year?"

Thunder Light shrugged, saying, "Can't complain, Soarin'; good parts, bad parts, etc., etc.; the usual stuff of life. How's life on tour for nearly all year?"

Soarin' and the other Wonderbolts broke into chuckles and light laughter at Thunder's wording of the question; the black and white mane stallion soon joining in with the laughter, the laughter reaching his eyes as he thought back to older times when he was in this same situation with the Wonderbolts; all of them laughing their manes off, laughing over things that over ponies probably wouldn't find funny.

"Well, life's been full of normal, boringness, Light; couple of shows in Fillydelphia, a few more and the previous show being in Manehatten, a couple of private shows. You know, the usual stuff of life on tour," said Wave Chill, the dark blue mane, blue coated Wonderbolt finishing zipping up his Wonderbolt uniform to the front of his neck, stopping at his the base of his throat as he pulled the head cover of the uniform over his head, slipping his mane through the gap for it.

"Oh, sounds very boring (!)" said Thunder Light sarcastically with a roll of the eye, and Wave Chill chuckled lightly as he grabbed his blue-lensed goggles and attached them to his head, keeping the lenses above his eyes until the time he needed to put them over his eyes.

"You could always join us again, Thunder; y'know, 'm sure the designer of our uniforms'll make you a new one," said Soarin', making sure to time it as best he could to try and catch Thunder Light off guard and possibly be able to persuade him to join up again.

Thunder Light turned around to face Soarin' when the stallion asked that question, and while the other Wonderbolt stallions turned into talking about their own conversations, he walked closer to Soarin' and whispered, "Soarin'…if I've told you one, I've told you before; I'm not going to be joining the Wonderbolts again. I mean, don't take me wrong, I really enjoyed the experience and wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world; so for that, I thank you. But…I just don't think I can recover to what happened in Saddle Arabia…the scars; they…run too deep…" as he tried to keep a level tone, though he couldn't help his voice from cracking slightly when he reached the Saddle Arabia bit of his talk.

Soarin' reached a foreleg forward and wrapped it around Thunder Light's neck, giving him a man hug as he tried to comfort the younger stallion, saying, "Hey…Hey….Look; I'm sorry I brought it up. It's just, well…you were the youngest ever Wonderbolt to not only attend the Las Pegasus branch of the Wonderbolt Academy, but also to join the official Wonderbolt team after just eight months in training; most recruits take a full year before they even have a shot at joining the team. You've got talent, Light; and with your father's blood in ya, I wasn't entirely surprised when me and Spitfire went to the Las Pegasus Junior Flight School for a visit."

Thunder Light sniffed slightly, rubbing his nose with his hoof before he smiled slightly with watery eyes, saying shakily, "Y-You know, it's funny; when I first saw you and Spitfire coming to the Las Pegasus Junior Flight School, I thought you didn't want anything to do with me; thinking you'll find out my father was Lightnin' Storm, the greatest flying in the Solar Surfers, and have something against me, what with my father being rivals to you."

Soarin' sighed but smiled as he patted Thunder Light's shoulder with the foreleg around the younger stallion's neck, saying, "You still don't get it, do you? We don't care about what is in your blood; whether it be the blood of a rival to the Wonderbolts, or if you've got blood in ya, like in your case, for Pegasus and a Unicorn. By the way, how is Blossom?"

Thunder Light smiled at the mention of his mother, and said, "She's fine the last time I contacted her; she's been busy taking care of flowers and making sure her flower patch is the winner for the best in show in Fillydelphia."

"Sounds interesting; so, you going to be staying for the show or is this just a social visit?" asked Soarin', ruffling Thunder Light's mane on the top of his head with his other hoof before taking his hoof around Thunder Light's neck, getting back onto all fours.

"Well, I'm here with a friend from Ponyville; she's a real big fan of yours," said Thunder Light, though his kept looking around, trying to hide that he was constantly looking back at the satchel at his side.

Soarin' raised an eyebrow slightly when Thunder Light said it was a 'she', before a smile slowly worked on his muzzle as he said, "Ooh! A 'she', eh? Got yourself a marefriend, huh?"

Thunder Light's eyes widened and his cheeks turned a dark red under the fur covering his cheeks, and he whined, "Soarin'! Please; like any mare would like to go out with me. Especially if she's one of our biggest fans; it might actually help you out…"

"Look, trust me; Rainbow Dash would not go out with me in a million years; for one, she's got too much pride to admit to something like that to a stallion that she barely knows anything about; and I do not intend to tell her about my time as a Wonderbolt. If anything, it'll probably make her want to hate me more," said Thunder Light, hating to even imagine what it would be like to lose a friend he like Rainbow Dash who he had barely known for a week.

"Wait; Rainbow Dash, you say? Isn't that the mare that save me, Spits and Fleet and won the Best Young Flier's competition a year or two back?" Soarin' to himself, lifting a hoof to his chin and rubbed his chin lightly, like he was trying to remember. But his thoughts were cut short when they heard a sharp knocking on the door, followed by a strong female voice.

"Yo, Soarin'! What's the hold up? We've got the show to do, and the fans don't want us to leave them in the dry!"

Thunder Light turned to look at the door, and asked, "Spitfire still as she normal is? Making her personality take after her name?"

Soarin' and the other stallion Wonderbolts all chuckled softly, and Wave Chill said, "She's calm down a bit since the last time we met up, though she still does 'spit fire' so to speak. But she's still a fair and honest co-Captain."

"Hey, she'll want to know you're here, Light; if I remember correctly, you and her were close back when we flew. She acted like a big sister to you," said Soarin', as he grabbed his goggles for a locker opposite of the place he was going through the final run through with the males. He then slipped the goggles over his head and kept them above his eyes as he and the other Wonderbolts headed towards the door; Thunder Light trailing behind them, trying to keep himself from being seen at first glance when they did open the door.

"Soarin'! What took you so long?" asked Spitfire, already in her Wonderbolt uniform and had her goggles over her forehead as she, the orange mane yellow coated Blaze, the white mane light blue coated Fleetfoot, her forest green eyes looking at the male Wonderbolts, High Winds, with her two shades of blue, curly mane and white coat and feathers visible through her Wonderbolt uniform; the two shaded, light and electric blue mane, light yellow coated Misty Fly, and Surprise, her bright yellow mane coming through the gap in the Wonderbolt uniform head and neck, and her white coated ears and muzzle coming through the gaps for them.

"Sorry we were a little longer than normal, Spits; it's just, well, we got a visit for somepony," said Soarin', the male Wonderbolts looking at each other as Wave Chill looked back at the still partly open stallion changing room; a black hoof stopping the door from closing completely.

"What, a 'visit'? Was it a fan trying to get in?" asked Spitfire, an annoyed tone coming through in her voice as she glared at Manerick and Whiplash, who had both moved from beside the changing room doors and were now making sure that no pony was going to come down before the Wonderbolts got to their performance.

"No, it wasn't a fan…but somepony I think you'll want to see…" Soarin' then turned to the stallion changing room and pushed it open completely, saying, "C'mon out; she'll want to know you're here…" Slowly, Thunder Light walked out from behind the corner of the door and into the open, the other male Wonderbolts moving to the side to let Thunder Light through to Soarin', who had walked back to the front of the male group as Thunder Light followed up besides the male co-Captain.

Spitfire, for the first few seconds, looked at Thunder Light with a mixture of amazement and shock; she didn't know what to do, but Thunder Light could see she was trying to make up her mind by the look he could see going on in her eyes; he could see the astonishment in her eyes, at the fact that Thunder Light had actually come to the Wonderbolts, and he could also see that look in her eyes that was similar to a look a sister would give her younger sibling.

"T…Thunder? You actually came to visit us before a show?" asked Spitfire softly, taking a step closer as the stallion she named smiled meekly at her, like a person would give another after not seeing them for a long period of time.

"Yeah, it's me Spits; in the flesh," said Thunder Light, smiling at Spitfire while his front hoofs scuffed against the floor gently.

Spitfire was silent for a second, before she broke into a small smile and took another step closer and lifted her right front hoof and putting it around Thunder Light's neck, while lifting her left front hoof up and ruffling Thunder Light's mane, giving him a light noogie. "How're you been doing, Lights? Haven't heard from you for a while," smiled Spitfire, chuckling lightly at Thunder Light grunt of annoyance of her giving him a noogie.

"D'you have to do that?" asked Thunder Light, trying to wriggle out of the grip of the mare, but Spitfire's grip was like trying to get out of concrete; she wasn't going to let go.

"Oh, c'mon; we were like family back when you flew with us, and I used to do this every time you were down or looked as though you were annoyed with somethin'; what makes you think I'm going to stop now when I haven't heard from you after almost a year? I've got some time to make up for," replied Spitfire, simply, ruffling his mane and continuing the noogie, despite Thunder Light's complains and the other Wonderbolt's chuckles.

"Now, if you're staying for the show, I'm going to find you and I'm going to finish off that; don't think you're getting off lightly," said Spitfire, smirking at Thunder Light's glare, though the male couldn't keep it up and eventually broke into a smile as Spitfire back off from him; Thunder Light's mane looking like he had just woke up from the worse night sleep ever.

"Actually, truth be told, I thought I wasn't going to be able to make this show," said Thunder as he looked around at all of the Wonderbolts, and he wasn't very surprised to see that they all had looks of confusion on the parts of the muzzle and eyes that were visible, and slowly turning to looks of concern and worry.

Spitfire, looking the most concerned of all, which was something that the Wonderbolts weren't used to seeing from their normally fiery co-Captain, and she took a step closer to Thunder Light, looking him over again as she said, "Why? What happened?" Thunder Light gestured to his wing, but before he had a chance to explain what was wrong and how it had happened, Spitfire was already examining the base of the wings, trying to see what might have been wrong with the wings of the pony she had been closest too in the Wonderbolts. "What happened to your wing? Did you break it? How long ago did you break it and how long ago did it mend and fly again? H-"

"Spits, I think you should give Thunder some room to breathe," said Soarin' quickly, judging from how close Spitfire was getting to Thunder Light with every question that the mare co-Captain asked. Soarin' took a quick step forward and slowly placed a hoof on Spitfire's shoulder and pushed her away from Thunder Light, who ruffled his mane slightly to try and get it back to what it was usually like.

"Sorry, sorry; I just worry 'bout him. It's just…" said Spitfire, trailing off as she looked away from Soarin' and back to Thunder Light, and finished off, "you were a very quiet young stallion when you first came to the Academy and joined the official team, and you were very isolated during that time; you rarely seemed to open up to the other recruits, or even us to start off with."

"Yeah, and you would try and get me to talk when I wouldn't hang around with the other recruits during the free time after training; you always seemed to have time," said Thunder Light, finishing off what Spitfire was going to say to him.

Spitfire smiled at the young stallion, before she said, "Alright, 'Bolts; we've got a show to get going. Thunder, we've got to get going; can't keep the fans waiting. Maybe we could meet up after the show or some other time like that?" The other Wonderbolts all nodded at the mare co-Captain, before they all walked past Thunder Light, giving him either a verbal 'goodbye' or 'see ya, Thunder', or even a pad on the shoulder as they passed; but what they didn't notice was that Thunder Light was trying to tell them something.

"Bu-But…hey…I-I was gunna….gunna…." said Thunder Light, having to pause every few seconds as one of the Wonderbolts would say to him a goodbye. He reached back to the satchel and partly pulled out something that was as midnight black as his coat, with a slight sparkle of silver visible as it reflected the light. "Give…you…this…."

Thunder Light sighed heavily and put the things back into the satchel, flipping the lid of the satchel close as he muttered, "I'll just try again after the show…" with that, he followed behind the last of the Wonderbolts and turned another corner, after the corner the Wonderbolts turned to head down to get to the below the stadium. Thunder Light walked down one of the corridors and arrived back at the same place he came in; he looked around to make sure that nopony was watching him and he quickly flew out, and entered the stadium through one of the main entrances.

He soon spotted Rainbow Dash amongst the other Pegasi, since she did stand out the most as she was the only one Thunder Light could see that had the rainbow mane and the cyan coat; he slowly flapped his wings and flew around the stadium, before lining up and landing down on the space beside the bored-looking Pegasus.

"And just where have you been? I've been bored out of my mind waiting for you!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, glaring at Thunder Light when he had landed on the seat.

Thunder Light flashed a sheepish and apologetic smile at the furious Rainbow Dash, before saying, "Sorry…I really had to go…"

Rainbow Dash huffed and rolled her eyes, before smirking as she said, "Well…at least you didn't miss the start of the show; _that _is something, I suppose…" Thunder Light nodded slightly, before looking in front of him, into the stadium as the announcement told them the show was seconds away.

"Well…at least I can watch 'em…" Thunder Light muttered to himself as the show started; he smiled to himself as he thought back to his old days of this….

* * *

**I'm trying this style to see if you guys like it better than the big paragraphs that I've been writing the past few chapters; if you like it better than the chunky chapters, I'll write like this from now on**

**Nf991**


	14. The Autograph

Chapter 14:

"That was awesome! I swear, they get better with each show they put on that I've seen; they were all, like…whoosh, whoosh! Neow, neow! Wow!" said Rainbow Dash in awe after the show, her hoofs expression the sounds she said, the glint of excitement and amazement easily visible in her excited, rosy red eyes. Thunder Light chuckled lightly at Rainbow Dash's unsaying fan girliness towards the Wonderbolts, as the flying squadron flew out of sight through the gap in the side of the interior of the stadium. "Yep, you got that right; they were truly amazing," said Thunder Light in agreement, smiling softly as he and Rainbow Dash flew up from their seats and towards the exit of the stadium; the announcer had reminded the crowd that the Wonderbolts would be signing pictures for the fans a few minutes after the show, giving the Wonderbolts a few minutes to have a shower and put on a fresh uniform for the signings.

"C'mon, c'mon; I wanna get a signed pic of all the Wonderbolts," said Rainbow Dash, grabbing Thunder Light's foreleg and, since they were both flying, guiding Thunder Light towards the area where the Wonderbolts were going to sign pictures. Thunder Light looked at the area where the Wonderbolts were going to sign the pictures either the fans or the Wonderbolts themselves would sign the pictures. His eyes widened and his lower jaw hung open; there was already lines stretching out from where the 'Bolts were going to be signing the pictures that stretched out for at least thirty Pegasi long; if they were going to be waiting behind at least one of them, and if Rainbow Dash, which she would most likely would want to, want to get all of the Wonderbolt's autographs, they were going to be waiting for a long time…

"Wait," said Thunder Light, stopping Rainbow Dash from moving the two of them getting closer to the ever growing lines of fans, "I think I can get those autographs for you without having to wait in the lines." Rainbow Dash looked at Thunder Light with a curious and a suspicious look, saying, "And how do you plan on doing that; 'cause if it means cutting the lines discretely, don't bothered; I tried that once and I had to go to the back of the line." Thunder Light chuckled softly as he shook his head slightly, saying, "No, it doesn't have anything to do with cutting lines; I wouldn't do that. No; I've got something else in mind for that…just wait here and I'll be right back…" With that, Thunder Light opened his wings and flapped them a few times, before flying up into the air and back to the stadium, leaving a confused and surprised Rainbow Dash behind.

* * *

Thunder Light re-entered the now empty stadium and flew through the same place he had gone through to get to the Wonderbolts before the show, and walked down the same corridor. He soon arrived outside the stallion and mare changing rooms, and was about to knock on the stallion's door, but he was stopped when a voce got his attention. "Thought you'd come back here afterwards."

Thunder Light turned at the sound of the familiar voice, and smiled as he said, "Hey, Spits; great show, as per usual." The mare with orange shaded mane and bright yellow coat smiled kindly at the stallion from leaning against the wall, a fresh, crisp Wonderbolt uniform on without the head cover on yet, revealing her face fully; her orangey eyes looking at Thunder Light kindly. "Yeah, the shows are getting better; a team effort, each Wonderbolt pulling their part together for us to make the shows better and more accurate. But still…I still think you were a great flier back when you were with us; and I'm not just saying that, Lights."

Thunder Light turned around to look at Spitfire directly, and said, "Spits, I've already told Soarin'; you're not going to persuade me to join you again." Spitfire rolled an eye slightly, before taking a step over to Thunder Light and said, "I'm not trying to get you to join again; I'm just commenting on your time as a Wonderbolt; I still think that your stage name was awesome." Thunder Light smirked slightly, before saying, "Yeah, I remember; 'Shadow Walker, the Wonderbolt of Shadows!'" Spitfire laughed lightly, before suddenly pouncing and getting Thunder Light into another head lock and returned to lightly ruffling Thunder Light's mane, with the stallion complaining and trying to get out of the headlock. "No fair!" whined Thunder Light, struggling as Spitfire laughed lightly and continued giving him a noogie, saying, "I told you that I'd finish off what I started before the show."

Thunder Light rolled his eyes before he cleared his throat loudly, saying, "Um, Spits…I've actually got to tell you something…It's important…" Spitfire looked at Thunder Light below her, and slowly brought her foreleg from around Thunder Light's neck and took a few steps back from Thunder Light, saying, "What d'you want to say, Lights?" Thunder Light took a deep breath and slowly reached a hoof back towards the satchel, while keeping eye contact with Spitfire, and said, "I'm returning this; and I'm not talking no for an answer." Before Spitfire could try and comment on what Thunder Light was doing, the stallion pulled something out of the satchel. "I want you to take this back," said Thunder Light, grabbing the pile of material that had fallen onto the ground by his jaw, and lifted it up, allowing it to be fully seen; it looked exactly like the stallion's Wonderbolt uniform, though the differences were that where it was blue on the normal Wonderbolt uniform, it was midnight black shade that was identical to Thunder Light's coat; where the lightning was around the ankles of the normal Wonderbolt uniform and the yellow underbelly were a metallic silver in colour. The standard holes for the tail and ears in the uniform was still in their normal places.

"I still don't understand why the uniform designers for the 'Bolts made my different coloured to yours and the others, yet kept the design layout for it," said Thunder Light through grit teeth. Spitfire sighed heavily, and shook his head, rubbing her forehead as she said, "OK, Alright; firstly, Lights, the designer made it those colours, yet kept the design of the normal coloured Wonderbolts uniform, was because they thought the black of your coat and the blue and yellow of the 'Bolt uniform contrasted too much, making it look bad. The black and silver of the uniform you got made it look better on you, and the fans loved it. And secondly, no; I told you when you first left the Wonderbolts. I'm not going to take it from you; and none of the other Wonderbolts are going to take it if you ask them."

"But why?" asked Thunder Light desperately, still trying to push the uniform from his satchel towards Spitfire, but the mare wasn't going to take it; she kept pushing the signature uniform back to Thunder Light and she replied, "Because it's yours; it's a memory of your time as a Wonderbolt, a time that you, from what Soarin' told me, didn't regret ever happening. The Wonderbolt uniform of yours is something that you keep in order to remember your time as one of us; the past Wonderbolts before us have done it." Thunder Light looked at Spitfire, desperately trying to tell her without words that he had to give it back. "B….But I HAVE to give it back; I don't only see the good and better memories of my time as a Wonderbolt, but…I see the worst memory I could ever remember from my time." Spitfire gently patted Thunder light's shoulder to try and comfort him, lifting his head up with her other hoof as she looked directly at him.

"Thunder Light…you have to try and forget about that; what happened wasn't your fault…" said Spitfire softly, patting his shoulder softly as she pulled away from him again. Thunder Light was about to reply/complain to Spitfire, but the other Wonderbolts came from both the mare and stallion changing rooms, Wave Chill and Surprise's, to name a couple, manes still partly moist from showers after the show, and all of them in crisp, fresh uniforms. "Yo, Thunder! You came back after," said Blaze, the mare smiling with her goggles over her forehead, revealing her forest green eyes, which stood out against her yellow coat and the blue of the Wonderbolt uniform. Thunder weakly smiled at Blaze, and said, "Yeah, Blaze; just thought I'd say a well done on the show; I swear, you guys keep getting better and better with each show."

The Wonderbolts all said their thanks to Thunder Light for the comment, before Soarin' eyed the black and silver Wonderbolt uniform hanging from Thunder Light's neck, and he sighed, commenting, "Thunder..." Thunder Light looked at the stallion co-Captain, and sighed, saying, "I've already had the lecture from Spitfire about the uniform; all I want to do is return it, is that too much to ask?" Spitfire took a step forward and patted the shoulder of the slightly shaking stallion, and said, "Thunder, Thunder…calm down; we're not going to take it because, a), there's a small chance that someone'll join the Wonderbolts in your size, and b), well…we don't want to take it back from you; you earned that uniform, and we're not going to take it from you. Simple as."

Thunder Light sighed, before looking around at all of the Wonderbolts one last time before asking, "So there's no chance of you taking the 'Bolt uniform away from me?" When all of the Wonderbolts around him shook their heads, Thunder Light hunched his shoulders slightly and sighed heavily, his head dipping slightly to get a grip on the black and silver Wonderbolt uniform in his teeth, and slipped it back into the satchel. "Well, there is one other thing I was going to ask of you guys…" added Thunder Light lightly, looking innocently at Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts. "What d'you need, Lights?" asked Fire Streak, taking a step forward and tilting his head slightly. "Well, I was wondering….like I've said, I'm here with a big fan of yours, and I don't think she would have wanted to wait in the lines that're at least thirty to forty Pegasi long, and I was wondering if…" started Thunder Light, but he trailed off by the time he got to the end of the sentence.

"You want to get her a signed picture of all of us for her?" asked Soarin' with a slightly raised eyebrow, and she looked at the other Wonderbolts as Thunder Light scuffed his front right hoof against the floor. Thunder Light chuckled lightly and nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with his other hoof as he said, "U-Um…yeah? I-I mean, i-if it's not too much to ask for…" before trailing off again as he flashed his eyes around at all the Wonderbolts around him. Spitfire saw how nervous Thunder Light was acting around them when he asked this, and she chuckled softly, approaching him again, ruffling his mane lightly as she said, "Sure, Lights; anything for an old 'Bolt." Thunder Light smiled lightly up at her, and looked at the other Wonderbolts, who all nodded back at the younger stallion and smiling at him. "Thanks guys," said Thunder Light softly, and he got out a picture of all of the Wonderbolts he had gained during the show, when there was a Pegasus coming around with them for sale and he had bought one.

Thunder Light got a quill out from the satchel that he always kept handy in his satchel. He then handed it to Surprise first, and after putting down the picture onto a small desk against one side of the corridor, each of the Wonderbolts in turn signed the picture Thunder Light had given them; each of them adding their own little note below their signatures, Spitfire's being, _'Always follow your Dreams!', _Soarin' writing, _'Never give up on your goals' _and Wave Chill adding to his signature, _'You set your targets; you set your limits. Remember that you're the only pony stopping you, Wave Chill.' _Once all of the Wonderbolts had signed the picture they had been given by Thunder Light, the stallion looked at the signed picture with a thankful smile, saying, "Thanks guys; I owe you one," as he gently picked up the picture and slid it into the satchel, trying not to bend the picture or cause any creases in it. "Don't worry about it, Lights," said Soarin', chuckling lightly at the younger stallion's gratitude.

"Well, I'd best get going now; don't want Dash to get suspicious about what's taking me so long," said Thunder Light at last, though he did sound reluctant when he said that. "Yeah, we should get going as well; don't want to keep the fans waiting any more than they have to," said Soarin', as he and Spitfire led the other Wonderbolts towards the area where they were going to be signing autographs for the fans. Thunder Light smiled and followed behind them, idly chatting with Lightning Streak and Misty Fly. When they had to part ways, Thunder Light said his goodbyes to each of the Wonderbolts, giving them a hoof-bump before heading out one of the exits to the stadium as the Wonderbolts headed off down another corridor and out another exit.

* * *

"You took your time! Now where were you?" asked Rainbow Dash when she finally spotted Thunder Light approaching her; she was sitting on her haunches against the side of the stadium, while the lines continued to grow, all of them eagerly waiting to get another signed picture of the Wonderbolts to add to their collection; Rainbow Dash would have been the same if Thunder Light hadn't promised to get it for her without having to wait in the line. Thunder Light approached Rainbow Dash after landing on the cloud, a soft smirk on his muzzle as he said, "And a hello again to you too."

"Well?" asked Rainbow Dash, getting off from leaning against the stadium and getting to the point of why she wasn't in one of the lines. "Always the impatient one, aren't you?" asked Thunder Light with a soft shake of the head, but turned his head back to his satchel and pulled out the signed picture. He lifted it gently out from the bag, as though pulling it out quickly would damage it or smug the autographs of all of the Wonderbolts, and held it in front of himself, allowing Rainbow Dash to see. The cyan Pegasus' mouth suddenly hung open and her eyes widened to the sides of dish plates as her eyes landed on the picture, looking between each one of the autographs from the individual Wonderbolts; her mind wondered how on Equestria Thunder Light managed to get an autograph from the Wonderbolts without having to wait in the lines.

"Wait a minute! Are you sure you just got this? And that you didn't already have it?" asked Rainbow Dash suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at the stallion in front of her; she had heard of ponies doing that before, saying that they were brand new autographs and sell them all, or that they were forged autographs for some pony to get a quick bit. Thunder Light rolled an eye slightly, before dropping the picture into his hoof so he could say, "Oh come on; would I do something like that? Would I do something that would lose a friend like you?" Rainbow Dash looked at him dead in the eye, trying to see whether he was lying or not, though she felt her heartstrings tug slightly in sadness when he said 'friend'; maybe she was going to be stuck in that zone….

"U-Uh, thanks," said Rainbow Dash shakily, trying to forget about what was on her mind at the moment. Rainbow Dash took a step forward and took the autographed picture from Thunder Light when he offered for her to take; her hoof brushing against his as she took the picture, and she was actually surprised at how smooth his coat was; the midnight black fur covering his body looked like it was at least a bit rough, but she couldn't feel any sort of roughness of his fur. Rainbow Dash tried to forget about it and said, "Wow…I'm still going to ask you about how you got it later, so don't you forget about it." Thunder Light glanced a look at Rainbow Dash's still glaring eyes, and he nodded, saying, "Alright, Dash." Rainbow Dash smiled dangerously at him, before taking a step forward and slipping the picture back into the satchel, saying, "You don't mind looking after this until we get back, do you?"

"Nah, its fine," said Thunder Light, Rainbow Dash smiling at him; she then quickly looked around, seeing that the Wonderbolts were now signing the autographs for the Pegasi in the queues, seeing they were all direction their attention to the Wonderbolts and nothing else. "Well…I guess we'd better get back to Ponyville now," said Thunder Light softly, tearing Rainbow Dash's attention back from the queues and back to him. Nodding softly, Rainbow Dash turned around to face away from the queues and in the direction of Ponyville, letting her tail brush against Thunder Light's cheek and snout softly, saying, "Well…thanks, I guess…" as she quickly unfolded her wings and, just before Thunder Light, who had a slight red tint to his cheeks, she turned to him and said, "You'd better not say that to anypony, 'cause I don't want them to think I've gone all soppy…" with a slightly threatening tone to her voice.

Thunder Light, looking slightly scared by the tone Rainbow Dash was using, slowly nodded and Rainbow Dash smirked at his nervousness and laughed lowly, before quickly flying off towards Ponyville again; Thunder Light following on behind her.

"Well, well, well…did you see that Spits?" muttered Soarin' to the mare co-Captain next to him after he had signed an autograph for a filly and her parents, his eyes gesturing to Rainbow Dash and Thunder Light just before they had left.. Spitfire looked over at where Soarin' was gesturing her to look at, and she smirked softly, managing to catch the mare flicking her tail against Thunder Light's face. "Well, well…Thunder's looks like he's moved on from Midnight Lantern…" commented Spitfire to herself and Soarin' between the time they had between signing autographs. "Ooh…he would not like that if he knew what you were talking about…that mare broke his heart…" commented Surprise, who was on the other side of Spitfire, sighing in disappointment. Soarin' and Spitfire both looked at each other, before they both thought the same thing; they shouldn't be talking about Thunder Light's previous relationship, and went back to signing the autographs of the next Pegasi in line for each of them.


	15. Pictures

Chapter 15:

"Well, here we are," said Rainbow Dash, landing on the clouds that surrounded the cloud house that was her own; she brought Thunder Light over since he was the one who was carrying the autographed picture of the Wonderbolts-she still couldn't figure out how he managed to get it-, and she didn't want to lose it. Sure, she had quite a few of the Wonderbolt's autographs, on various pictures and in a variety of ink colours, but she couldn't have too many autographs of her favourite flying team and her flying heroes. Thunder Light looked at the exterior of the cloud house of Rainbow Dash, looking at the rainbow-coloured fountain at one side of the mare's house, and the design of the house got him interested. "Nice place you've got here," he commented aloud to her, looking over at her. Rainbow Dash smirked, pushing a bit of her mane out of her eye as she said, "Well, of course; I live here, so how could it not be awesome?"

Thunder Light chuckled softly at her self-confidence, before he straightened his face again and looked around, trying not to make the cyan mare feel awkward if he just looked at her. Rainbow Dash soon felt into the awkward silence that enclosed Thunder Light, rubbing the back of her mane nervously and awkwardly as she laughed awkwardly, trying to get rid of the awkwardness around them; it didn't really help much. "Would you, um…like to come in? I mean, you have got the autographed pic, and you've come this far already; so, why not, eh?" Thunder Light looked at her in astonishment, having only been inside one other mare's house before, and that mare ended up breaking his heart… Thunder Light shook his head slightly, trying not to shake it too much as to make Rainbow Dash think he didn't want to come into her house, and be rude. He quickly looked up at the cyan mare Pegasus, and smiled, saying, "If you're inviting me in; then I'll be rude to say no."

Rainbow Dash smiled widely at him accepting her offer, her emotion of happiness taking off again like a newly freed bird, but she tried her best to hide it from the stallion. She simply shifted to the side and turned around, heading towards the door and saying, "Well, c'mon then; what're you waiting for?" as she smirked at Thunder Light's hesitation. Thunder Light took a small step forward, before hesitation for a few seconds; he didn't want to spend too much time in Rainbow Dash's house, but then again, he didn't want to seem like he wanted to leave too soon and end up looking rude in Rainbow Dash's eyes. He shook his thoughts to the back of his mind as he followed Rainbow Dash inside her house, the mare opening the front door and holding it open for the stallion to walk through.

"Nice," commented Thunder Light, looking around at the interior of the cloud house; even though it was pretty basic, it was still alright; he had seen worse cloud house, and Rainbow Dash's wasn't even close to the worse he had seen. Rainbow Dash just shrugged her shoulders and said, "It's not much, but, meh, it's mine; and that's what matters." Thunder Light nodded at Rainbow Dash's words, before reaching back into the satchel and slowly taking out the signed picture out of his satchel. He slowly put it into his hoof and said, "Well, here you go…" Rainbow Dash smiled in thanks to him and slowly took the picture from his hoof, before suddenly and unexpectedly, moved her head forward and brushed her cheek against his, in the form of a quick and light nuzzle. Thunder Light, a deep blush spreading from cheek to cheek ,making his cheeks look a deep red colour, looked Rainbow Dash as she pulled away; she looked similar to him, though her cheeks looked like they were turning the slightest purple from the redness of her blush in such bad contrast with her cyan coat.

"You even think about mentioning that to anypony; _anypony, _and I'll make sure you regret it; cousin of Rarity or not," warned Rainbow Dash, her tone having a dangerous edge to it as she glared at the blushing stallion, her own blush slowly disappearing and her cyan cheeks returning to their normal colour. Thunder Light broke out of the temporary trance he had been put into, and when he saw the dangerous look in Rainbow Dash's normally cheeky and teasing rosy red eyes. He gulped softly, and nodded quickly, taking a safe step back from Rainbow Dash, and held his tongue; he thought about saying something, but thought it would be better if he didn't say anything…and safer on his side if he did end up saying anything he would regret seconds later.

Rainbow Dash nodded, after she was sure that Thunder Light wasn't going to say anything to anypony about what she had just done in an act of soppiness, and smirked sweetly at him; it amazed Thunder Light to no extent how she could change from being threatening and acting like she'd bite his head off if he said anything, to smiling teasingly like she didn't even say anything. "Good; now I'm just going to put this up somewhere," said Rainbow Dash, gesturing to the autographed pic in her hoof, adding, "I'll be just a few minutes; wait here." With that, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings quickly and flying up the stairs to the upper part of her house, leaving Thunder Light alone downstairs.

Thunder Light looked around Rainbow Dash's house, trying to find something to do while Rainbow Dash was upstairs; he contemplated about taking a seat on the sofa when he eyes landed on the cloud furniture, but he thought against it; thinking it would be rude to just sit down in somepony else's house when he hadn't ask or get permission to. His eyes suddenly landed on a collection of pictures hanging from one of the cloud walls; he briefly wondering how that was possible, but he pushed that to the back of his mind for later as he trotted towards the pictures. He looked over some of the photos when he got closer to them; he spotted one that had the mare he remembered as Pinkie Pie taking up the majority of the picture, looking as though she was holding the camera and was trying to get in on the picture at the last second. In the rest of the picture that wasn't taken up by Pinkie Pie's head and mane, he could see the Alicorn, Twilight Sparkle, though back when she was just a unicorn looking at the back of Pinkie Pie's head, with Applejack lifting her head up behind Pinkie Pie's head; she must have been where the excitable pink maned Earth pony had popped her head into the picture.

Thunder Light smiled ever so slightly to himself as his eyes flicked over to the rest of the picture; he could see his cousin fussing over Rainbow Dash's mane, trying to get it right for the picture; the Pegasus trying to push Rarity away from messing with the visible rough and wild mane. Fluttershy, in the midst of all of this, was standing to the side of the picture frame, the part of her face that was visible blushing slightly. Thunder Light smiled softly, looking over the picture of the six mare friends; they were close, Thunder Light could see that. His eyes then spotted another picture that caught his attention; shifting over to look at the framed picture easier, he saw that it had two Pegasi it in; one of them was Rainbow Dash, but the other, much younger Pegasus was one that Thunder Light didn't recognise. His icy blue eyes looked at the orange coated, purple-maned filly, her greyish purple eyes filled with happiness and excitement. Thunder Light tilted his head as he looked at Rainbow Dash's right foreleg around the neck of the filly; a embrace that he saw similar with siblings.

"Dash never said anything about having a sis…" commented Thunder Light idly, lifting a hoof up to gently brush the surface of the picture; being careful not to knock the picture and potential break it. "Then again; I can't say much, keeping secrets…" muttered Thunder Light to himself, his eyes dropping sadly as he glanced back to his satchel for a few seconds, contemplating on whether or not telling Rainbow Dash was such a good idea…. _'No; you've seen how much she loves the Wonderbolts; she'll won't believe me if I tell her I'm Shadow Walker. She'll think I'm insulting her and she'll hate; I can't lose any friends,' _Thunder Light harshly told himself, trying to tell himself that he wasn't going to tell her…not yet, anyway….

Movement from behind him suddenly caught his attention and he turned around; Rainbow Dash was coming back from upstairs, her hoofs kicking up small puffs of cloud as she trotted lightly down the stairs, flying her wings lightly for a few seconds before closing them against her sides. "Looking at those pics, are ya?" asked Rainbow Dash with a smirk, trotting across the cloud floor of her house and over to Thunder Light, who replied, "Had to do something while you were upstairs, sorting out that autographed pic." Rainbow Dash nodded, standing close to Thunder Light as she looked over the pictures as well, smirking as her eyes landed on the first picture Thunder Light had spotted. "That was taken just after me and the others took down Nightmare Moon," said Rainbow Dash, pointing to the picture that had the majority of it taken up by Pinkie Pie's head with a hoof, a smile plastered to her muzzle as she thought back to that day.

"You sure do leave the adventurous life, don't ya?" asked Thunder Light with a slight chuckle, which in turn caused Rainbow Dash to laugh lightly as well; the two Pegasi laughing together for a second before Thunder Light lifted a hoof up slightly to point at the picture with Rainbow Dash and the orange coated filly. "Who's this with you? I don't think you told me you have a sister?" he asked, looking at Rainbow Dash. The mare looked over at the picture Thunder Light was talking about, and felt a smile twitch at her muzzle for a second before her face saddened, saying, "That isn't my sister; her name's Scootaloo, and, well…she doesn't actually know her parents…" Thunder Light's ears flattened against his head slightly as he looked away, before looking back and saying, "Poor filly…that's a harsh life…" Rainbow Dash nodded softly, sighing before she straightened her back and neck, saying, "She doesn't really talk about it much; though she does see me as an awesome sis and even awesome-er idle," as she puffed her chest out in pride and smirked with her eyes closed by the time she had finished the last sentence.

Thunder Light rolled an eye slightly as he sarcastically said, "Always the modest one aren't you?" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes back at the stallion, before she leant against the cloud wall next to the pictures, asking, "So, I haven't got anything else planned for the rest of the day; you wanna hang out?" Truth be told, Rainbow Dash actually did want to spend time with Thunder Light, despite all of the times she had told herself that what she was feeling for the black and white maned stallion were just a simple thing that would eventually go, and she'd probably hear against it if word got to Rarity if she found the two of them were together. Rainbow Dash blushed heavily at the mere thought of the word 'together' when she thought of herself and Thunder Light.

Said stallion looked at Rainbow Dash curiously, having noticed her blush but not saying anything which might lead to an argument between the two of them. Thunder Light rubbed the back of his head as he said, "Um, well, Rainbow…I'd sure like to spend a bit more time with ya, but I kinda…promised Sweetie Belle that I'd spend a bit of time with her; since she'd heard a lot about me from Rarity and wanted to get to know me personally. I mean, she's my cousin and all…so…I'm sorry, Rainbow." Rainbow Dash felt a little saddened when the stallion said this, but he did have a good point; Sweetie Belle probably hadn't had enough time to get to know a lot about Thunder Light, and the cousins did need to get to know each other if they were going to be staying in the same house for a while. "Ah, it's fine; I don't want too much of my awesomeness getting lost through you," replied the cyan mare, smirking at her words and at Thunder Light's reaction.

"Ah, I see; think I'm awesome enough as it is?" asked Thunder Light, using his quick thinking to turn a similar question to Rainbow Dash. The Pegasus mare scolded at him for a second before she rolled an eye, saying, "Did I say anything like that? Anything even close to that?" Thunder Light shrugged idly, asking, "Anything close to what?"

"That you're awesome; and almost as awesome as me. Did I say anything even close to that?" asked Rainbow Dash, getting confused at why Thunder Light was smirking lightly at her after she had said that. "Why thank you, Dash; and you said it, just then," came Thunder Light's chuckle of a response, and Rainbow instantly realized that she had been played. "Oh, you!" said Rainbow Dash with an annoyed eye roll and an annoyed sigh, bringing her front right hoof to her forehead. Thunder Light chuckled softly, smiling as he turned to face the cloud front door, saying, "Well, I'll meet you sometime another day, Dash?" Rainbow Dash, still feeling a little annoyed about how easily she had been played by the stallion, before she brightened up and said, "Well, sure; oh, Nightmare Night's coming up in a few days. Fancy meeting up at the Boutique?"

"Sure; I'll meet you then. See ya Dash," said Thunder Light, saying his goodbye to her for the day with a slight wink as he opened the front cloud door and closed it behind him. Rainbow Dash blushed slightly at the wink he gave her, watching him leave through one of the opens between the cloud walls that formed one of the windows of her house. She slowly looked back at the collection of pictures that she and the stallion had been looking up; she spotted a blank spot on the cloud wall that she had been meaning to fill with another picture of herself when she became a Wonderbolt; but now, for some reason, she slowly began to imagine a picture of herself and Thunder Light, laughing together.

'_OK, there must be something SERIOUSLY wrong with me! I'm starting to think Light's more important than me being a Wonderbolt; and NOTHING is as important as me becoming the greatest Wonderbolt who ever lived!' _thought Rainbow Dash, determination in her thought-voice as she too exited the house, closing her cloud door behind her and flying off in the opposite direction of Thunder Light.

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**Yeah, I'll be including the CMC's in the next chapter.**

**Nf991**


	16. Hanging with the Crusaders - Part 1

**Yeah, I'm not really proud of this chapter. But trust me; they get better after this and the next one**

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Chapter 16:

Thunder Light flew through the air away from Rainbow Dash's house, and back towards Ponyville; his wings flapping lightly every couple of seconds to keep his level flying, allowing his mind to wander while he flew, making sure to keep an eye on where he was flying. His thoughts wandered over recent things that had happened to him; meeting up with the Wonderbolts after nearly a year of absence, and yet they had taken to him like they were his own family after running away….spending time with Rarity after so long since they were just colt and filly, which seemed so long ago to him…and Rainbow Dash…For some strange reason, Thunder couldn't help but not get Rainbow Dash out of his thoughts; that cyan coated Pegasus was something that Thunder Light just seemed to be unable to get out of his thoughts.

He assured himself that it was just became she was one of the first friends that he had when he first arrived at Ponyville, and that she would soon on his mind less and less. But the more Thunder Light thought about it, the more that it became apparent to him that the other mares that he'd met during his time in Ponyville weren't on his mind as much as Rainbow Dash.

'_It's 'cause you're hanging around her for the majority of the time,' _Thunder Light reassured himself in his head, shaking it to try and clear it as he soon spotted the small Carousel Boutique on the ground below him; he tilted down, and slowly began to fly towards the ground. His hoof scuffed against the dirt as he landed outside the house of his cousin, flapping his wings once before closing them against his body, the small clouds of dirt around his hoofs slowly falling back to the ground again. He looked around, trying to find Sweetie Belle, saying that he'd meet up with her outside the Boutique; but she didn't seem to be anywhere in sight.

Thunder looked around again to try and find her, but he still couldn't see her. He muttered, "Just drop the bag off inside and come back outside; she'll probably turn up by the time I get out…" before he quickly trotted inside the Boutique and up the stairs, saying a brief hello to Rarity as he headed upstairs.

"Have ya seen Sweetie Belle, Rare?" asked Thunder Light as he came back down the stairs again, looking over at his unicorn cousin, who was busy sorting through the fabric rolls in one of the cabinets.

"Um, I'm sure that I last saw her outside, waiting for you," said Rarity, turning her head slightly to look at her Pegasus cousin, light blue aura covering both her horn and several rolls of different coloured fabrics.

Thunder Light nodded, already feeling stupid in case Sweetie Belle had been waiting outside all this time and he hadn't spotted her, and quickly walked through the door again, the bell going off when he opened and closed the door.

"Belle? You there?" called Thunder Light when he closed the door of the Boutique, looking around the surrounding area around the building; his icy blue eyes scanning all that he could see. He walked around a bit, trying to cover more ground to try and find the elusive Sweetie Belle.

Suddenly, he was tackled by a blur of white and light purple that he didn't see coming at all. The blur was soon followed by a young, feminine voice, squealing, "Cousin Thunder Light! Cousin Thunder Light!"

Thunder Light chuckled softly and righted himself again, looking down at Sweetie Belle as he gently ruffled the top of her mane, chuckling, "Well, hello again to you two, Sweetie Belle."

Sweetie Belle giggled and nuzzled against Thunder Light's hoof, saying, "I can't wait to introduce you to my friends, the other Cutie Mark Crusaders!"

Thunder Light raised an eyebrow slightly at what Sweetie Belle called herself and her friends, and he asked, "The Cutie Mark Crusaders? Is that what you call yourselves?"

Sweetie Belle nodded excitedly, saying, "Yeah! Me, Applebloom and Scootaloo are the Cutie Mark Crusaders! And we try everything we can think of to try and earn our Cutie Marks!"

"Ah, alright; where exactly are you meeting up with the other two?" asked Thunder Light, already knowing who Scootaloo was from the picture he had seen in Rainbow Dash's house, and not yet knowing who Applebloom was.

"At the Cutie Mark Crusader Treehouse!" said Sweetie Belle excitedly, before she grabs Thunder Light's hoof and began pulling, trying to get him to get up and follow her, saying, "Come _on, _Thunder, hurry up!"

Thunder Light chuckled softly, putting up a little resistant to Sweetie Belle's pulling, but he eventually gave in and followed behind Sweetie Belle; seeing as he didn't have any other choice, since she had still had a grip on his hoof.

"Come on, _come on! _Why are you being so slow?" complained Sweetie Belle, still dragging Thunder Light along and looking back at him, with clearly impatient and slightly annoyed eyes.

Thunder Light raised both his eyebrows as he looked at Sweetie Belle, and said, "Oh! You think I'm moving slow, do you? Alright, I'll show you; climb onto my back."

Sweetie Belle looked at him, before her eyes lit up with excitement and she squealed softly in excitement, saying, "Oh yay! Rarity told me that you were an 'outstanding flier'!"

Thunder Light cringed softly when Sweetie Belle said that, and after making sure that there weren't any ponies around to have heard Sweetie Belle, slowly lowered onto his stomach and lowered one of his wings to the ground, allowing Sweetie Belle to climb into his back.

Sweetie Belle quickly scrambled onto his back, accidently knocking the base of one of Thunder Light's wings; the stallion winced at the sudden jolt of dull pain that shot through his body, and he said, "H-Hey, mind the wing bases; one of 'em is still kinda painful if it gets hit even by the slightest touch."

The filly looked at the wing base she had knocked in her hast to climb onto her cousin's, and flattened her ears slightly, her excitement level dropping slightly at the fact that she had hurt her cousin; she said, "Sorry…it's just Rarity told me that you're a great flier, and I wanted to see if you were as good as she said you were."

Thunder Light turned his head back and smiled softly at his cousin; he pushed his head back and nuzzled against Sweetie Belle's cheek, saying, "Hey, it's alright; accidents happen to everyone." He then lifted his other wing up when he was sure that Sweetie Belle was on his back, settling her safely between his wings before he opened them both up. "You might want to hold on," warned Thunder Light, to which he felt the small hoofs and forelegs wrapping around his neck, almost reaching all the way around his neck.

Seconds later, Thunder Light gave a few powerful flaps of his wings, and he and Sweetie Belle were above Ponyville; the sounds being the rushing wind rushing past Thunder Light's ears and through his mane, and Sweetie's terrified screaming, holding onto her cousin's neck so tightly that Thunder Light was actually starting to find it difficult to breath.

"Uh…Sweetie, could ya…loosen your grip a lil? It's…getting kinda hard…to breathe…" gasped out Thunder Light, slowing down a lot as to not scare Sweetie Belle, and to try and persuade her to not hold onto his neck so tightly that it was choking him.

Sweetie Belle had her head buried into the back of Thunder Light's neck, her hoofs almost touching around Thunder Light's neck and her face buried into Thunder Light's mane, refusing to take it out of the mane and look around at this height.

Thunder Light could tell that Sweetie Belle was scared; he felt a large pad of guilt fill his chest, and he slowly descended lower, trying not to scare Sweetie Belle any more than she already was. "Sweetie Belle…it's OK; we're not as high as we were…" whispered Thunder Light softly, trying to get Sweetie Belle to come out of his mane, and to loosen the grip on his neck.

Sweetie Belle could tell the truth in his voice and slowly, but shakily pulled her face and muzzle out of Thunder Light's black and white mane, and was in awe at the sight around them; they weren't as high as the clouds, but they were just high enough that they were a bit over the roofs of Ponyville.

"Wow…" whispered Sweetie Belle as she loosened her grip ever so slightly on Thunder Light's neck; the stallion taking a deep, much needed breathe, though he had a smile on his muzzle when he saw that Sweetie Belle didn't seem as scared as she did seem when they were higher in the sky.

"So, Sweetie; where's this treehouse of yours and your friends?" asked Thunder Light, trying to get to the treehouse quickly, but without making Sweetie Belle scared again.

Sweetie Belle moved her head slightly so she could look over the side of the Thunder Light, and narrowed her eyes, trying to locate the Cutie Mark Crusader Treehouse from this new position above the town.

"Oh! Oh! There it is!" said Sweetie Belle, pointing a hoof towards the ground to a small, barely visible box in one of the many trees in the forest that Sweetie Belle was pointing at.

Thunder Light nodded and slowly tilted, not enough to scare Sweetie Belle, but enough for them to turn in the direction that Thunder Light saw Sweetie Belle gesture to. He then tilted forward slightly, slowly descending towards the ground again. Once they were closer to the ground, Thunder Light could see the treehouse better, and could see two small creatures coming out of the treehouse; one, he could see, was mostly orange and the other was mostly cream with a tint of red.

His hoofs made gently contact with the ground beneath him when Thunder Light finally landed, and he lowered himself closer to the ground to all Sweetie Belle to gently jump off of him. He looked up at the sound of light trotting getting closer to them; he saw the two fillies that Sweetie Belle mentioned before.

"Wow, Sweetie Belle; who's that?" asked Scootaloo, the filly Pegasus being the first to reach the cousins, with Applebloom following up behind her fellow Crusader.

"This is my cousin, Thunder Light; he's come to visit me and Rarity from Las Pegasus, and he's awesome!" said Sweetie Belle, smiling at her two friends before looking back at Thunder Light; the stallion smiling back at Sweetie Belle and at the other two fillies in front of him.

"And what is it that makes him awesome?" asked Scootaloo with a raise eyebrow, as she took a step closer and looked at Thunder Light's, a suspicious look on her face as she tried to decide for herself whether Thunder Light deserved to be called awesome.

Applebloom rolled her eyes slightly at Scootaloo's, before saying, "Ah think Applejack told me 'bout that Thunder Light; though Ah done thought that he couldn't fly, 'cause he done hurt his wing."

"And what exactly is it that makes him so awesome?" asked Scootaloo before Thunder Light had a chance to answer Applebloom's question, and the stallion turned his head to look at Scootaloo when she asked that question.

"Well, ya see-" started Sweetie Belle, but she was cut short when Thunder Light quickly put a hoof over her mouth to prevent her from telling Scootaloo and Applebloom what he thought she was going to say.

"U-Uh…b-because I'm related to Rarity and Sweetie Belle; and they're awesome cousins, and it must be rubbing off on me?" said Thunder Light, just hoping that his quick thinking was enough to stop Scootaloo and Applebloom from asking anymore questions about him.

Scootaloo narrowed her eyes suspiciously, looking likes he didn't believe what he was saying to them, causing Thunder Light to smile nervously at the young filly; there was something about that filly that just made him feel a little uncomfortable when she glared at him like that.

"Well, that's true! Now, Scootaloo, what're we gonna do to try 'n earn our cutie marks today?" asked Applebloom, stepping up to Scootaloo, seeming that she believed what Thunder Light was telling the three of them.

The orange coated, purple mane filly turned from looking at Thunder Light to look at Applebloom, and said, "Well, here's what I'm thinking…"

As the other two fillies talked to each other about what they could do to earn their cutie mark today, Thunder Light crouched to the ground next to Sweetie Belle, and he softly asked, "Sweetie Belle, u-um…what exactly did Rare tell you about me?"

Sweetie Belle tilted her head for a second, before she shrugged innocently and said, "She just told me that you're a good flier and you're from Las Pegasus; not much else."

Thunder Light sighed softly in relief, thankful to Rarity that she didn't tell Sweetie Belle anything that the filly might say to her friends that could bring back memories to some ponies. "Tunnelling!" said Scootaloo suddenly, drawing the attention of Sweetie Belle and Thunder Light back over to her.

"Tunnelling?" asked Thunder Light, slightly wearily; he didn't like the sound of that idea, especially when it was being done by three young fillies.

"Yeah, tunnelling! We've got to try what we can to get our cutie marks; and think about it, if it turns out it's not our secret talent, at least we know we're not gonna have a spade or an axe for a cutie mark!" said Scootaloo, trying to prove her point to the stallion; but that didn't seem to make any difference to Thunder Light, who was still wearing a look of caution on his muzzle.

"Alright, Crusaders; let's go!" said Scootaloo, leading the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders in a random direction; Thunder light following behind them, purely to look out for his cousin and to make sure that none of the Crusaders got hurt from what they were planning on doing.

"Finally; can't believe how long that meeting took so long," complained Rainbow Dash under her breath as she left the weather factory in Cloudsdale, flapping her wings as she flew back towards her cloud house. "All because of a simple weather change in Las Pegasus…" she added to herself, shaking her head to try and get the boring meeting out of her mind.

She pushed open the cloud door of her house and closed it behind her, looking around, temporarily surprised that Thunder Light wasn't there. But then she remembered that Thunder Light had gone to spend a bit of time with Sweetie Belle, and probably the other Cutie Mark Crusaders as well.

Rainbow Dash sighed softly, kicking up a bit of cloud as she kicked her floor lightly, wondering what she could do to keep herself occupied with the rest of the day. She then felt something nudge against her leg, and looked down and smiled, seeing that it was Tank, who looked back up at her.

"Hey Tank," said Rainbow Dash with a smile, picking Tank up and nuzzling her snout against Tank's head; the tortoise slowly nuzzled her back, blinking slowly at her in response. "Oh Tank…" sighed Rainbow Dash softly, drawing her head back from the shelled creature and sighing again, though this time was much heavier.

"I've got to be seeing things, or feeling things, or whatever the right way of saying it is; I don't think I've been right since Thunder's arrived here," said Rainbow Dash, seeing as she felt that she could tell Tank anything and he'd listen to her. "I mean, sure he looks a little good, but I don't see what makes me think he's so special."

Rainbow Dash then looked at Tank and muttered, "Wonder if you have any idea what might be causing the problem?" Tank replied with a single blink. The mare sighed and was silent for a few moments, before her eyes suddenly brightened up and she said, "Hey, wait a minute! There's no saying that I can't go down to visit Scoots! And I know that Thunder'll need all the help he can get when he's dealing with the Crusaders…"

With a final nuzzle to Tank, Rainbow Dash said, "See ya later, Tank…" as she put the tortoise back down onto the cloud floor and exited the door again, closing it behind her and flying off towards the Cutie Mark Crusader treehouse, and thinking she'll work her way from there….


	17. Hanging with the Crusaders - Part 2

Chapter 17:

Rainbow Dash landed outside the CMC's treehouse, flapping her wings once before folding them against her sides. She looked around, expecting to see the at least one of the Crusaders or Thunder Light; but she was surprised to find that she couldn't see any of the four ponies she was expecting to see near the treehouse. "Huh; wonder where they could be…" thought Rainbow Dash aloud, looking around again, wondering where they could possibly be. Suddenly, she hears a high pitched squeal, followed by several distant giggles.

"That sounds like Scoots…" muttered Rainbow Dash, looking in the direction of the giggles and squeal, before quickly trotting towards the source; the giggling and laughing becoming louder the closer she got, and the sound of sloppy mud hitting objects. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow before she was behind a bush, the source of the sounds coming from behind it. With her curiosity getting the better of her, Rainbow Dash lifted a hoof up and pushed a bit of the bush down.

_SPLAT! _

Rainbow Dash's vision was blocked when a large glob of mud came flying towards her at the exact same moment she pushed the leafs of the bush down. Unimpressed and annoyed, Rainbow Dash scraped the mud off of her face and muzzle, flicking her hoof and foreleg to get the mud off of her. Eyebrows arched in annoyance, Rainbow Dash glared daggers in front of her, only for her expression to soften ever so slightly and a smirk formed on her muzzle.

In the small opening, were all three Cutie Mark Crusaders and Thunder Light; they were all involved in a massive mud ball fight, each of the ponies throwing a couple of balls of the sloppy mud at one of the others every few seconds. Rainbow Dash could tell that they were already in the middle of it, judging from how many mud stains were dotted around the coats of the four ponies, and from the laughter coming from the Pegasi, Unicorn and Earth ponies.

Seeing that they might not have noticed her yet, Rainbow Dash watched for a few more moments; surprised at how well Thunder Light seemed to be coping with the Crusaders. Thinking back to when Fluttershy told her about when she had looked after the Crusaders and saved them from a cockatrice, and how 'they needed to just try and listen', in the words of Fluttershy. Yet Thunder Light seemed to be coping just fine with the Cutie Mark Crusaders; _'in fact…'_

Rainbow Dash looked closer, narrowing her eyes slightly as she examined the scene; to her, it seemed as though Thunder Light was the ring leader of the mud ball fight, seeing as he seemed to be the one who was avoiding the most flying mud balls, and throwing most of the mud balls at the Crusaders. Though the trio of fillies didn't seem to mind the mud balls flying at them; they were all laughing, mud dripping from their manes and their coats, throwing their own balls of mud right back at the stallion.

Thinking that it would best to tell them that she was watching them, Rainbow Dash pushed her way past the bush, and slowly trotted towards the area of the flying mud; ducking once more to avoid a rouge ball of mud flying towards her, and Rainbow Dash was sure that that was when they first noticed her; Thunder Light and the Crusaders were all watching her as she approached, a sly smirk on her muzzle as she approached.

"Well, well, well; what do we have here?" asked Rainbow Dash, stopping in front of the four ponies, just before the large mud spot that surrounded the Crusaders and Thunder Light.

"Uh…trying to get our cutie marks…" said Scootaloo, looking at the other Crusaders and Thunder Light as a ball of mud she had in her hoof, ready to fire at one of them. The other Crusaders nodded in agreement to the filly Pegasus, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle dropping the globs of mud they had ready.

"Uh-huh….didn't know you were trying to get it for playing in mud…" said Rainbow Dash, trying not to offend the Cutie Mark Crusaders; and she was glad to see that they didn't seem to mind that, just shrugging it off with laughter.

"Well, listen 'ere; what we were tryin' to do were get our cutie mark's for diggin'; all Scoots' idea," said Applebloom, gesturing to the filly Pegasus who smiled sheepishly at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, before she caught sight of something behind the Crusaders and Thunder Light; a selection of mining equipment, including pickaxes, torches, safety helmets, etc.

"Riiiiight….and how does that lead to throwing balls of mud?" asked Rainbow Dash, turning her gaze back to the ponies, focusing her eyes first on the Crusaders, and then moving to look at Thunder Light; the stallion whistling innocently.

"Don't look at us! It was Thunder Light!" said Sweetie Belle, a bit of mud dripping off of her mane as she pointed a hoof at the older stallion; Rainbow Dash looked over at Thunder Light, who smiled sheepishly at the mare, who had raised an eyebrow at him suspiciously.

"I couldn't help it; I'm basically a big colt when it comes to this sort of thing!" said Thunder Light, trying to defend himself should the mare try to lecture him; he really didn't know Rainbow Dash that much, did he? Rainbow Dash just rolled an eye at him, an amused look playing across her face. Thunder Light's head suddenly jerked to the side, as though something had struck the side of his head.

As mud slowly tricked down the side of his head, some of it dripping over his mane and sticking his mane to his coat, Rainbow Dash looked over at the source of the mud ball; her eyes landed on a victorious looking Scootaloo, though the filly tried to act the innocent when her idol's eyes look at her. Scootaloo chuckled sheepishly at Rainbow Dash as she rubbed the back of her neck, though she was quickly reduced to giggles and laughter as she and her friends started throwing mud balls at each other, quickly dropping into a mud ball war.

"Fillies, eh?" asked Thunder Light, looking over at Rainbow Dash before looking back at the Crusaders for a second, a smile flashing over his muzzle as he wiped the mud off of his mane, though quite a bit of it stayed in his mane, as well as dripping down the sides of his black coated neck.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at Thunder Light's words, though she had the slightest tint of red to her cyan cheeks as she glanced over the subtle muscles hidden away under the midnight black coat of fur. "Yeah, suppose so; though I never thought you'd be good with young ponies."

Thunder Light shrugged a shoulder slightly, saying, "Yeah, never did really think I'd be good with younger ponies; though I guess it had something to do with my line o-" Thunder Light stopped himself from exposing anymore of his past to Rainbow Dash than he already had done previously.

Rainbow Dash put her hoof on the stallion's shoulder and forced him to turn around, to look at her directly as she bore her eyes into his own, saying, "You're line of what? Line of work? And what, dare I ask, may that be? C'mon, I'm going to find out eventually, and I _hate _not knowing; so, you gunna spill or not?"

Thunder Light looked at Rainbow Dash after her sudden burst of questions, as her rosy red eyes bored deeply into his own icy blue pair, before he glanced over at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. He sighed ever so softly, before glancing back at Rainbow Dash, and in a hushed voice, said, "Look, I'm not going to tell you; I'd only tell you if you're somepony I can trust above others, and right now, I don't really trust you that much…"

"But if I think I can trust you enough, I'll tell you," added Thunder Light before Rainbow Dash had a chance to reply with an angered retort to the first thing that he had said. Rainbow Dash glared at him with fire in her eyes, as though she was angered that he would say that to her, and she opened her mouth to fire an angered reply at him, only to close it a few seconds later.

'_Huh; if it's something that he wants to keep that badly, must be somethin' pretty big…' _thought Rainbow Dash idly, though she was trying to keep at least a partly angered look at Thunder Light. Rainbow Dash mulled over her choices in her mind for a few more seconds, before she made her decision.

"Fine," Rainbow Dash huffed, sitting back on her haunches and folding her forehoofs over one another, "If it means that much, I'll stop nagging ya about it." She finished with an eye roll, though it wasn't as bad as she could have made it.

Thunder Light smiled thankfully at Rainbow Dash, glad that she was getting what he was saying to her, before his eyes looked over to the Crusaders and he quickly said, "Duck!" as he lowered his head.

Rainbow Dash tilted her head to the side at Thunder Light's reaction, and said, "What do ya mean, Du-" but she was cut short when a big glob of mud hit the back of her head, causing mud to drip down the sides of her mane and over her head.

"Told ya," said Thunder Light, his head coming back up as he tried to hide a smirk, seeing the mud dripping from Rainbow Dash's mane and head, an unamused expression on the mare's face.

Rainbow Dash looked over at where the mud ball had come flying from; her eyes landed on the Cutie Mark Crusaders, trying to act the innocent, whistling nonchalantly and looking around. "Alright, own up; who threw that?" asked Rainbow Dash, her eyes flicking from Crusader to Crusader.

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo each pointed at one another.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes before a sly smirk formed on her face, mud dripping down her neck and dripping off the base of her neck and onto the ground. "Well, in that case…" started the mare, before she quickly put together three mud balls and threw them at the Cutie Mark Crusaders, hitting each one of them.

All three fillies complained momentarily, before they all smirked suspiciously at something behind Rainbow Dash; curious, Rainbow Dash turned her head around to see what they were looking at, only to get a face full of mud covering her face. She scrapped the mud from over her eyes, to see Thunder Light with a cheeky smile on his muzzle and mud covering his right forehoof.

"Oh, it's on now!" said Rainbow Dash, suddenly flying back a few meters and throwing globs of mud at Thunder Light; the stallion lifting his forelegs up to cover his face as mud splattered against them.

This soon led to an all-out war, with Rainbow Dash against Thunder Light, against the Cutie Mark Crusaders; all of the ponies throwing mud balls at each other, and having to block their faces from incoming globs of mud. About ten minutes later, all of them had warn themselves out and were panting; most of their coats and manes covered with mud, with a bit dripping off.

"Well, that passed the time, didn't it?" said Thunder Light, glancing at the three fillies; the Crusaders all nodded, their faces beaming as though they had already gained their cutie marks.

Rainbow Dash smirked, wiping a bit of mud dripping from her forehead and saying, "Well, it has been fun, and that's saying something coming from me. But I think we'd better get this mud off before it sticks; trust me, it's a nightmare if you try and get the mud off ya after it's dried on ya coat and mane."

The three Crusaders all started to complain, not wanting to, knowing that it was another word for a bath, but Thunder Light interrupted them before the complaints could get too loud. "C'mon, don't complain; you know that Dash is right, and I for one know from experience as well; there's nothing worse than picking mud out of your mane and coat after it's dried up."

The Cutie Mark Crusaders, all of them mumbling against the idea, eventually gave in and they, Thunder Light and Rainbow Dash headed to a nearby river that Rainbow Dash had said was as good a spot as any to use to clean off.

"See ya later, Sweetie Belle; I'll be back later tonight," said Thunder Light, after the group of ponies had cleared off the mud at the river, and Scootaloo and Applebloom had gone back to their houses. Thunder Light and Sweetie Belle, with Rainbow Dash following beside them, had returned to the Carrousel Boutique, seeing as it was getting late, for Princess Luna had started to lift the moon and Princess Celestia had used her magic to lower the sun for the day.

"Alright, Thunder Light; see you later!" said Sweetie Belle, smiling widely at her cousin and nuzzling Thunder Light, and the stallion smiled back and nuzzled Sweetie Belle back. As the filly quickly entered the shop/house, Thunder Light turned to look at Rainbow Dash, and the two were in an awkward silence for a few moments; neither sure what to say.

"So…"

"So…"

Both Pegasi chuckled awkwardly when they both said the same thing at the same time; trying to break the ice between the two of them. After a few seconds of laughter, Rainbow Dash cleared her throat awkwardly, finding it strange to herself that she, Rainbow Dash, was feeling awkward around somepony, said, "Looking forward to Nightmare Night next week?"

Thunder Light smiled and said, "Sure; used to love Nightmare Night when I was a colt; though I've kinda grown out of wearing costumes for the night."

Rainbow Dash's jaw suddenly dropped open when she heard Thunder Light didn't put on a costume for Nightmare Night, and she said, "What?! But Nightmare Night is the best time of year to pull pranks on everypony! C'mon; get Rare to make you a costume; I'm wearing my Shadowbolt costume!"

Thunder Light's head turned to look at Rainbow Dash when she said 'Shadowbolt,' and Rainbow Dash thought he saw something flash in his eyes for some reason, but it vanished as quickly as it had appeared. "Oh, um…alright; I…I'll think about it."

Rainbow Dash nodded, flicking a bit of her still drying mane out of her face as she said, "See ya 'morrow, Lights; if not, see ya Nightmare Night." With that, the mare opened her wings and took off, leaving Thunder Light outside of the Boutique. Thunder Light watched her leave, the mare soon vanishing in the changing colour sky; once Rainbow Dash had vanished from his sight, Thunder Light shook his head and sighed quietly.

"Got worried there for a second; 'Shadowbolts'….haven't heard that team for a while…" muttered Thunder Light under his breath, before slowly flapping his wings and flying up to the top tier of the Carrousel Boutique, quietly entering the open window that lead to his temporary room.

* * *

**Like I said in the last chapter, not really proud of this and the last chapter; but after this, they should get better.**

**Though don't expect any new chapters for a bit; life's a bit hectic at the mo, hence why it took me so long to do this chapter. But I will keep uploading chapters when and if I can.  
**

**Nf991**


	18. Nightmare Night - Part 1

Chapter 18:

A few days had passed since Rainbow Dash had hung out with the Crusaders and Thunder Light, and today was Nightmare Night; Earth ponies were busy setting up decorations for the upcoming night, while Pegasus and Unicorn ponies helped with their wings and magic respectively, by reaching the heights of the buildings of Ponyville that the Earth ponies couldn't reach.

Rainbow Dash had just landed outside of the Golden Oak Library after leaving her cloud house; she though that it would be good to hang out with her friends before Nightmare Night started. She trotted over to the door and knocked on it twice.

She had expected to hear the sound of falling books and Twilight Sparkle complain about someone interrupting one of her book sorting sessions; but instead, she got silence. She knocked a couple more times before she got a response; "OK, OK; I'm coming, hold your horses!"

'_Spike? Since when does he answer the door instead of Twi?' _thought Rainbow Dash as the purple scaled and green finned baby dragon opened the door to her friend's library/home. "Hey Dash," said Spike, holding the door open as he stood in the doorway.

"Oh; hey Spike, just wondering if Twilight's in," said Rainbow Dash, looking around Spike to see if there were any books on the floor of the library or if there was any sign of her friend's magic aura.

"Twilight's not here; she's gone off to Canterlot with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They've got some kind of Princess Thing they've got to represent. But I think she'll be back for Nightmare Night; and I think she said something about bringing Princess Luna with her," informed Spike.

Rainbow Dash huffed slightly, a slightly annoyed expression on her rounded muzzle; she wish her friend would tell her beforehand that she was going somewhere and wouldn't be there to hang out with the awesomeness that was Rainbow Dash. "Uh, thanks Spike; tell Twi I called for her when she gets back," said Rainbow Dash.

"Sure thing, Rainbow Dash," said Spike, waving the Pegasus mare goodbye as Rainbow Dash quickly turned and flew away from the Golden Oak Library; he grabbed a chef hat from beside the door, and said to himself, "Better get started on making something for myself…" He reached behind the door again, bringing out a book that had a wooden spoon and a chef's hat on the front cover.

"Mmm…" said Spike as he looked through the pages of the cookery book, closing the door behind him as he went over to the kitchen in the Golden Oak Library.

As a massive flour explosions somehow managed to go off in Golden Oak Library, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings lightly, flying easily through the gently wind. "Maybe I'll try Applejack; she can't have anything going on…" thought Rainbow Dash to herself aloud, before heading off towards Sweet Apple Acres.

* * *

"Sorry, Dash; no can do. Ah've got to make sure Ah get all the apples ready fer Nightmare Night ternight," said Applejack, in the middle of apple bucking a tree of its apples when Rainbow Dash had asked her if she wanted to do anything before Nightmare Night; the apples shaking in the tree before falling into the baskets hanging at Applejack's sides.

"How long's that going to take?" asked Rainbow Dash, landing on the ground in front of the orange-coated Earth pony as she trotted to the next tree; Rainbow Dash following behind her.

"Dunno; Ah've got ter help make the apple cider; that's gunna take a while ter make that. Plus Ah gotta make a couple er other things ready fer ternight," said Applejack, tilting her Stetson forward slightly as she rubbed the back off her mane as she tried to think.

Rainbow Dash sighed in annoyance, stomping her hoof against the ground and kicking up a small cloud of dust. The Pegasus said, "So what I'm I suppose to do to pass the time? I've got no weather duties today, since it's all sorted for the rest of the week...OK, sure; the next week starts tomorrow, but still….What the hay I'm I suppose to do?"

Applejack shrugged her shoulders, saying, "Ah don't know; maybe y'all could hang 'round with that Thunder Light. Y'all seem to be hangin' 'round him a lot."

Rainbow Dash's instantly straightened up when she heard the Southern pony say those words, and she glared daggers at the Element of Honesty, saying, "And just what is that suppose to mean?!"

Applejack shrugged her shoulders, a sly smile on her muzzle as she said, "What? Ah'm just sayin' somethin'; no harm in just sayin' somethin'. Ah'm just merely voicing my opinion."

Rainbow Dash glared at Applejack as she said, "I-I-I don't…I have no idea what you're talking about! I…I'm just making sure that he's finding Ponyville alright and…uh…stuff like that!" Though she did seem to have the lack of believability in her voice that Applejack seemed to pick up on, but didn't make any sort of motion to suggest that she did notice it.

"Uh…yeah…Anyway, Ah'd love to sit 'ere and talk sum more, but Ah gotta get more apples for ternight. See ya Dash!" said Applejack, tilting her Stetson forward as a goodbye to the Pegasus as she trotted off to collect more baskets, to collect more apples for Nightmare Night; just in case she didn't have enough apples to start with.

Rainbow Dash watched her go, the sourness of when Applejack was hitting on Thunder Light returning for a split second before disappearing as quickly as it had vanished. _'What was that all about?' _thought Rainbow Dash, shaking her head slightly as she too turned back to face the opposite direction to Sweet Apple Acres and trotted off back to Ponyville. "Maybe I'll try Fluttershy in a bit?" Rainbow Dash thought aloud to herself as she opened her wings and flew towards Ponyville.

* * *

"What d'you mean, you're busy?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"I-I-I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash….I-I've got to…to make sure all the animals are prepared for N…Nightmare N-N-Night," stuttered Fluttershy, lowering her head as she talked to Rainbow Dash; a couple of animals of various species scattering to their dens and nests.

"Um…W-Why don't you t-try Pinkie? I-I-I mean, um, if you want to, t-that is," added Fluttershy nervously, quickly looking down at her hoofs before returning to trying to help a family of mice.

"I've already tried asking her; she's up to her mane with work from Mr and Mrs Cake, and she's got to make sure her chicken costume is still her size since last year," said Rainbow Dash, calming down from her sudden outburst. This was true; she had gone to see Pinkie Pie in the Sugar Cube Corner before she had come to Fluttershy's cottage. But she had been in the middle of making treats for Nightmare Night, and she, Mr and Mrs Cake were all busy to make enough treats for tonight and for the costumers.

"O-Oh, well…um, well, m-maybe you could help me?" asked Fluttershy, as she helped make a nest for a family of birds, nudging the nest onto her snout and flying lowly up to the tree, nudging the nest into the branches as the family of Blue Birds.

"Uh, no offense Fluttershy, but I don't think that I'm good when it comes to animals," said Rainbow Dash, ruffling her rainbow mane as she turned to the side, looking back at Ponyville as Fluttershy tended to the animals that usually was with Fluttershy.

"O-Oh…well, that's alright," said Fluttershy softly, and Rainbow Dash slowly opened her wings.

"I'm going to head back into Ponyville; see if Rarity's busy," said Rainbow Dash; true, she wanted to hang around with her friends, but it seemed that everyone that she tried to ask if they were busy, _were _busy.

"That's fine, Rainbow," said Fluttershy, nuzzling a family of thankful otters for Fluttershy assisting them with their home. With that, the rainbow coloured mane flew off to Ponyville.

"Looks like there's only one pony left…" muttered Rainbow Dash to herself, adjusting her fly path and flew towards the Carrousel Boutique, though she did have a feeling that something bad was going to come out of this visit…

* * *

"Hold still dear!"

"Rarity, why am I doing this again?"

"You said you were bored, didn't you? And I needed help, so this is how we ended up like this."

"…"

"Now, if you don't have any more complains…"

"Ow! Ow! Hey, watch it! Those needles have sharp points!"

'_How did it come to this?' _Rainbow Dash asked herself, as she stood on one of Rarity's dress fitting podiums, with a froffy dress on, made up of cloths of gold, silver and other expensive looking coloured clothes. Rarity, with her measuring tape around her neck and a pin cushion hovering thanks to Rarity's magic, was working on the patches of cloth that were going to be made into a dress.

"Well, if you'd stop squirming and stay still, then you wouldn't feel the needles!" said Rarity, a tired and slightly annoyed tone coming through her voice as she used her magic to levitate the measuring tape from around her neck and straightening the tape against Rainbow Dash's back, taking note of the length of the dress she had in mind before returning the tape around her neck.

"So, ow!, how's Thunder Light settling in? This is his, what, second week in Ponyville?" asked Rainbow Dash, trying to both distract herself from the annoying little pricks from the needles, and to find out how Thunder Light was doing.

Rarity paused for a second, as though she was thinking about the question before, still doing her magic on the dress, saying, "He's settling well Rainbow; he seems to be getting on with the ponies of the town quite well. Though I have seemed to notice that you and him have been hanging around each other quite a lot recently…"

Rainbow could tell where this was going with Rarity, and she rolled her eyes annoyingly, adding, "Look, I do remember what you told me when Light came here. And I've listened to you; we're friends, not…you know…"

Rarity glared at Rainbow Dash for a few seconds, as though she was making sure that Rainbow Dash wasn't holding any of truth back in her words; but then again, Rarity knew that Rainbow Dash was honest to her words, and she was loyal to her friends…

"Alright, that's good; now, I am almost finished with this dress for one of my clients…and then you'll be good," said Rarity, closing one of her eyes in concentration as she slowly and carefully put needles between two of the pieces of cloth.

"Good; this froffy dress is kinda itchy," said Rainbow Dash, going to lift a hood up to scratch her side that Rarity wasn't working on; but she froze when she heard the bell go that hung over the front door; signalling somepony had just entered the shop.

'_Oh please don't be Thunder; I'll never live this down if he saw this…' _Rainbow Dash thought to herself in desperation, stopping her eyes from moving to look at the door of the Carrousel Boutique. There was a silence for a few seconds after the bell went off, since Rarity was too into her dress making to check at first, or even hear that somepony had entered the shop.

"Uh…I, um…have no words; other than, 'I never thought I'd see you in that sort of clothing, Dash'," said the familiar voice of Thunder Light, and Rainbow Dash flashed a look over to the front door; it was the black coated, black and white maned cousin of Rarity, Thunder Light; the stallion had a slight smirk on his muzzle.

"Hey! I'm helping out Rarity with her stuff! This stuff; it's just…too froffy, and definitely not awesome enough!" said Rainbow Dash, both trying to get her point across to Thunder Light that she'd never willingly wear something like this and spare Rarity's feelings.

"Honestly, Rainbow! You look simply divine with this on!" said Rarity, waving a hoof to dismiss Rainbow Dash's complaint as she narrowed her eyes in concentration and threaded a few more needles between more of the fabrics.

"O…K…So, Dash; when and if you've finished being a pony pin cushion, wanna go hang out for a bit?" asked Thunder Light as Rainbow Dash winced, caused by one of the needles accidently clipping her side as Rarity threaded through two of the golden fabrics on her flank.

"Yeah, sure; that is if I can actually move after being a pin cushion," said Rainbow Dash, a playful tone in her voice cast at Rarity; the fashionista Unicorn rolling her eyes slightly as she returned to concentration on finishing the dress.

Thunder Light chuckled softly, casting a friendly smile over at Rainbow Dash; the cyan Pegasus mare gaining a warm, tingly feeling in the depth of her chest that she seemed to get every time she was either around or hanging around Thunder Light. Though she made sure not to show that she was getting that feeling while Rarity was around.

Thunder Light turned to the door again, and said, "I'll be waiting outside; give you some time to finish the work and give a little privacy." With that, the stallion Pegasus exited the shop again with a ring of the bell.

"His personality is defiantly a combination of my aunt and uncle," commented Rarity as she looked up when Thunder Light left, before adding one of the last needles needed to make sure that she got the design and layout of the dress alright.

"Your aunt and uncle? I'm guess his mom and dad? Hey, wait a minute; what actually is Thunder Light? I mean, your family is pure blood Unicorn. So, does that mean your aunt or uncle fell for Thunder's Pegasus mom/dad?" asked Rainbow Dash, the question having suddenly pop into her head when Rarity had mentioned Thunder's parents.

"Well, my aunt Blossom fell in love when she met a stallion Pegasus; from what I rememeber, the stallion accidently bumped into her while she was trying to get some of her flowers, she runs an Equestria-wide flower business, to a client. OK, I think I've got it!" said Rarity, stepping back to admire her work before using her magic to carefully get the dress in progress off of Rainbow Dash.

"Good; see ya Rare," said Rainbow Dash, the second the froffy dress was off of her, the Pegasus mare dashed off of the podium and trotted to the door, saying, "You doing anything for Nightmare Night?"

"Oh goodness no! I've got to make a few more art forms of dresses are ready for this client, tonight! Sweetie Belle'll be gallivanting off with her friends," said Rarity, carefully putting the dress in progress on one of the pony manikins.

"Alright; might see ya later," said Rainbow Dash, and she opened the door in front of her and walked out of the Carrousel Boutique. She looked around for a brief second and saw Thunder Light waiting to the side of the front door. Rainbow Dash smirked slightly and trotted towards the stallion, saying, "Alright, Lights; want do ya fancy doing before Nightmare Night?"

Thunder Light smiled at Rainbow Dash, causing the mare to have the same warm feeling in her chest, and he said, "Well, I was thinking about getting something to eat; y'know, before everything closes for Nightmare Night tonight. I'll pay."

Rainbow Dash smiled at Thunder Light and flicked her mane out of her eyes, saying, "Sure, I'm cool with that. Though, this ain't a date or anything, is it?" Even though she asked against this, she wouldn't actually mind it if he was asking her on a date; the thought of this caused a slight, but unnoticeable, shiver running down her sides.

Thunder Light shrugged slightly, rubbing the back of his mane as he asked, "Uh…were you expecting this to be a date?"

Rainbow Dash looked at Thunder Light, her face boring an expression that was similar to one of annoyance, and she said, "What? No, no, no, no! I've got a reputation to keep up here; and that does kinda mean that I'm a sort of an independent pony." Though it hurt Rainbow Dash slightly to say that, she had to; in case any other ponies that were passing by heard them.

"Ah, alright; wanna get going?" asked Thunder Light, getting up from sitting on his haunches and looking up at Rainbow Dash; the mare following beside Thunder Light, though leaving enough of a gap between them so that no passing ponies got any ideas.


	19. Nightmare Night - Part 2

Chapter 19:

Thunder Light and Rainbow Dash soon arrived at one of the best cafes in Ponyville after a few minutes of silent walking. A few of the Earth and Pegasus passing by the café at the time glanced a few looks at the two Pegasi, but they ignored them as they took a couple of seats at one of the tables outside the café, while still belonging to the café. "So, what're you going to have?" asked Thunder Light as he picked up the menu with his hoof and flicked his eyes over the menu while Rainbow Dash casually flicked her eyes once or twice over the menu.

"Ah, not sure; maybe I'll have some hayfries and a hayburger, or something like that…" said Rainbow Dash, though she was only half paying attention to the menu; her eyes kept flashing from the menu's fancy and barely readable writing, to look at Thunder Light; the stallion blissfully unaware of Rainbow Dash's eyes glancing at him. Rainbow Dash, even though she would never admit it to anypony, had to at least admit to herself…she couldn't help but find Thunder Light just the littlest bit cute and good looking.

Rainbow Dash quickly shook her head, trying to make it look like she was swatting away a fly that was annoying her while trying to keep her cool up. Thunder Light didn't seem to notice the action Rainbow Dash did, and the mare heard him muttering, "I'll probably get something like a portion of hayfries…but I gotta stay in shape, maybe a small portion…"

After he had made his decision, a white coated Unicorn waiter trotted over to them and asked what they would like; Rainbow Dash ordered her hayfries and hayburger, while Thunder Light ordered a simple and small portion of hayfries.

While they waited for their food to arrive, Rainbow Dash rested her forehoofs on the table and asked, "So, Thunder Light; care to tell me a bit about yourself? Not your, like, work or anything like that. Nah, I mean like your…parents and stuff like that."

Thunder Light looked at Rainbow Dash, making sure that she was telling the truth; Rainbow Dash put on an innocent look to make the stallion believe. When he saw she was actually interested in his normal life, Thunder Light shrugged slightly.

"Not much to tell really; Unicorn mother and Pegasus dad, sometimes go to visit them when I have the time. My mom runs one of Equestria's largest and most popular flower company, _Flower 'n Love. _My dad…well, he's kinda popular with some of the Pegasi around Equestria…."

"Really? Who's he?" asked Rainbow Dash, getting a bit curious now; sure, she wasn't asking about Thunder Light's personal life, but she did want to know a little about his folks.

"Well…his name's Lightning Storm…" said Thunder Light, making sure to be quiet as he did not want to let the other ponies walking around. Rainbow Dash's eyes widened and her jaw dropped completely, almost so that it was pressed against the table; she quickly recovered and shook her head, gawking at Thunder Light.

"What?! Your dad is Lightning Storm?! As in, _the _Lightning Storm, captain of the Solar Surfers?" asked Rainbow Dash, though she remembered to keep her voice low for Thunder Light's sake; that still didn't get the shock out of her to find out Thunder Light's dad was a famous flier.

After making a gesture to Rainbow Dash to quieten down, Thunder Light looked around to make sure no ponies heard Rainbow Dash's outburst. After returning to looking directly at Rainbow Dash, Thunder light smiled softly, saying, "Yeah; that's him."

Rainbow Dash smirked at Thunder Light, resting her head on her hoofs as she said, "That's awesome, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, it is kinda awesome; my dad's got a load of trophies and pictures from his time as a Captain, and he and the team have won a couple of competitions," said Thunder Light, giving a slight shrug like it was nothing.

"Wait; does that make you a Solar Surfer supporter or a Wonderbolt supporter? Or does it just run in the Pegasus gene?" asked Rainbow Dash, cocking her head slightly as she asked that question; she did seem a bit confused about why Thunder Light had gone to a Wonderbolt show with her when his father was the Captain of a rival team to the Wonderbolts?

"Well, my dad did get me a load of Solar Surfer stuff for my birthdays; I have to admit, I did kinda like the Solar Surfers when I was younger. Though they might have to do with my dad bringing me to practises while my mom was busy with her business. I'm sorta…in between the squads, at the moment," said Thunder Light, thinking quickly to try and avoid telling Rainbow Dash about his secret business; he thought it was believable, though he only hoped that Rainbow Dash thought it was just as believable.

Rainbow Dash looked at him for a second, before saying, "That's awesome; just playing awesome. Though it would have been, like, 20% cooler if you got to go to the Wonderbolt's training sessions." Thunder Light flinched his hoof slightly when Rainbow Dash said the Wonderbolts, but when he realised that she was talking idly about them, he calmed down a bit and sighed unnoticeable under his breath.

Soon, their respective food arrived and they both dug into their hayfries; they shared idly chatter during the meal, though they were mainly focused on the food. Rainbow Dash, while trying to focus on the taste of the food, but she just couldn't help but flash looks up at Thunder Light as the stallion idly took a few fries from the plate. Now that she knew that his dad was a famous Pegasus flier, and she herself had heard and read about Lightning Storm in _Pegasi Monthly _a few times; things were a little different between the two of them, but that didn't mean anything serious had changed between the two of them…right?

"So, still going to Nightmare Night in that Shadowbolt costume you told me about?" asked Thunder Light, drawing Rainbow Dash's attention from her food to the stallion sitting opposite her.

"Hmm? O-Oh, yeah….Yeah, I'm still going to get 'round Ponyville in that costume; I find it amusing when I see the reactions of them when I strike lightning!" said Rainbow Dash, adding a slight laughter to her voice as she said that; Thunder Light couldn't help but smirked at Rainbow Dash's comment and confidence that she seemed to be able to keep going wherever she went.

"What about you; you decided to go out for Nightmare Night or something?" asked Rainbow Dash, and Thunder Light rubbed the back of his mane slightly as he looked around; seeing some of the ponies adding some last minute decorations for Nightmare Night, like little heads of evil-looking Unicorn head, trying to look like the head of Nightmare Moon.

"Well, Rarity is kinda busy with a dress order or something like that with one of the clients; so she won't be able to hand out the candy for the trick or treaters; so I'll have to look after the door and candy. Sorry, Rainbow Dash; probably won't be able to get out for the Night," said Thunder Light in apologies, gently shrugging his shoulder as he took another fry from the small pile in front of him.

Rainbow Dash felt crestfallen at this, but she didn't show it; she had survived other Nightmare Nights like this, and she was certain that she could make it through another Nightmare Night with just scaring colts and fillies with her scares.

"Alright; that's reasonable, I suppose. Though I might have to drop by and give ya a little scare. Y'know, just so you get the right amount of scares for the night," said Rainbow Dash, smirking slyly as she finished off her hayburger in a few more bites, while Thunder Light was just able to finish off the small pile of haryfries he had ordered by the time Rainbow Dash finished her pile of hayfries that came with the hayburger.

"Oh, I know; though it does take a lot to scare me," said Thunder Light idly, making sure that he got all of the fries; though Rainbow Dash was sure that he was laying down a challenge to her.

"Oh, do I feel a challenge getting thrown down on the table?" asked Rainbow Dash cockily, raising her eyebrow slightly as she lifted her head up to glare at Thunder Light directly; Thunder Light looked up at Rainbow Dash casually, not even looking like he was even close to being intimidated.

"I might be; though I'm not saying if I am," said Thunder Light, a sly and mischievous grin forming on his muzzle. Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes in a friendly way, and smirked competitively.

"Oh, it is on now!" she said, a little louder than she had meant to; several ponies passing by looking at the two Pegasi strangely, but Thunder Light and Rainbow Dash but shrugged the looks off with laughter and chuckles. After a few more minutes of idle chatter, Thunder Light said he was going to go pay for their food, and slowly got up from the seat, trotting inside of the café.

As Rainbow Dash waited for the stallion to get back from inside the café, her mind began to wonder; Thunder Light, a cousin to one of her best friends, was the son of one of the many famous Pegasi in Equestria? Why hadn't Rarity told her she was related to somepony like Lightning Storm? Then again, Rainbow Dash did have to think about how rare ponies of different kinds bred; perhaps Rarity was a bit…ashamed of having a Pegasus for an uncle?

She was then drawn back from her wondering thoughts when she heard the bell go at the door of the café, and she turned to see the stallion with a Unicorn mother and Pegasus father walked out of the café, and head over to her. Thunder Light smiled at the mare and he said, "I'm guessing that you want to get back to your cloud house if you want to get into that Shadowbolt costume?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah; race ya!" said Rainbow Dash, flapping her wings to get some height above the ground; she looked down at Thunder Light as she challenged him to the race.

Thunder Light looked up at the hovering mare and smirked back at her, saying, "Oh, trust me; you do NOT want to challenge me to a race. Especially since my wing's all healed up completely now, and I've been given the all clear by the Doc."

Thunder Light then flapped his wings a couple of times, before he lifted off of the ground and hovered a few feet away from Rainbow Dash. He smirked over to the mare and said, "So, race to your house?"

"Yeah; first one there has to take a forfeit," said Rainbow Dash, though she was having trouble thinking of a suitable forfeit to put on Thunder Light _when _she won. Thunder Light didn't seem to be bothered by the fact of possibly taking a forfeit should he lose the race.

"Alright, you're on. The loser takes the forfeit," said Thunder Light, making sure that he was getting it right as he prepared his wings to an intense flight. Rainbow Dash smirked back at the stallion, and she quickly said, "3 2 1, GO!"

She had barely said that when she suddenly shot off from her current destination, heading off towards her cloud house near Cloudsdale at high speed; she had this in the bag for sure.

But when she looked behind her, she was both shocked and actually surprised to see a small speck of midnight black against the slowly darkening blue sky slowly gaining on her. Narrowing her eyes slightly to focus in on what the speck was, she confirmed it; it was Thunder Light, rocketing after at a speed she hadn't seen anypony apart from herself fly at.

'_What?! How is he able to keep up with me?! I'm the fasting Pegasus in all of Equestria; how could he keep up with me?' _Rainbow Dash asked herself, though her mind briefly wondered back to when Thunder Light told her about his time with Lightning Storm at the Solar Surfer headquarters; maybe he had picked up a few tricks from observing the time he had spent watching them…Suddenly, the midnight black blip that was once way, _way _behind her unexpectedly shot past her; completely startling and blowing away Rainbow Dash.

"Huh?" asked Rainbow Dash, startled as she quickly flapped her wings harder and harder until she felt a slight pain in her muscles; she desperately tried to catch up with Thunder Light; there was _no way _she was going to lose to the newest pony in Ponyville.

A small Mack cone started to appear as Rainbow Dash increased her speed, and she was eventually catching up with Thunder Light; though they were getting closer and closer to Rainbow Dash's house, and that meant that time was running out for Rainbow Dash to pull something out of the bag.

If somepony was to look up at the sky at this moment, they would see two streaks of coloured light flying across the sky; one of them was Rainbow Dash's rainbow trail that often followed behind her, while the other was Thunder Light's; a trail of white light with black light on either side of the white light. It would be quiet interesting for somepony to watch; the two Pegasi seemed to be quiet intense in the race against each other.

Rainbow Dash's house eventually came into view, and Rainbow Dash was shocked and disappointed to see that Thunder Light had already landed on the edge of the base clouds for your cloud house. When she reached the cloud base, Thunder Light had turned to her and was smiling at her; Rainbow Dash returned the smile with a slight grimace.

"Alright, go ahead; what's the forfeit?" asked Rainbow Dash rather reluctantly; she really hated losing, but she hated it even more when she made a bet with the other pony and she lost. She closed her eyes, expecting something stupid or probably dangerous, or even something that she didn't think was something she wanted to. An-

"Nothing," said Thunder Light.

Rainbow Dash turned her head back to look at Thunder Light, opening her eyes and showing a confused look on her muzzle. "What?" she asked, wondering if some cloud had gotten in her ears while she was flying.

"Nothing; I'm not getting you to do anything for a forfeit," said Thunder Light, adding to what he had just said to Rainbow Dash; a slightly amused look on his muzzle as Rainbow Dash faced morphed into one of even deeper confusion.

"B….But I thought you were going to give some sorta stupid forfeit," said Rainbow Dash; she had tried to learn how to control how truthful she was to other ponies, but she hadn't really got anywhere in that.

"No; I won the race fair and square, and that's all I would have wanted," said Thunder Light simply, before saying, "Hadn't you get that costume on? Nightmare Night's going to officially start soon, and I'm pretty sure that you want to get started as quickly as possible."

Rainbow Dash looked at Thunder Light strangely, like he had just suddenly turned from a Pegasus to Unicorn without any sort of explanation, before slowly trotting through the now open cloud doors and into her home; but not before saying, "Uh…thanks Thunder; and cool race. I ain't met any pony yet that could outfly me. But that might be because I was having an off day; I'll get you and beat you, that, I can assure you of."

After smirking mischievously at Thunder Light, Rainbow Dash quickly walked up to her room, the doors slowly closing behind her. Thunder Light sniggered slightly under his breath and he opened his wings again, flying back to Ponyville.

* * *

"I'm back Rare," said Thunder Light, slightly louder than he should have done as he entered the Carrousel Boutique, the bell going off when he opened the door. He looked around for a few seconds before his eyes landed on the hard working Rarity; the Unicorn mare was working frantically on several of the dresses for her client, muttering notes to herself under her breath as she quickly moved to each one of her dresses, working on that for a few seconds before moving on to the next.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, yes; welcome back Thunder," said Rarity, waving a hoof behind her as she focused on one dress being particularly difficult for her. Thunder knew that it would be best to leave Rarity to her own devices, seeing as he had seen her a few times when she was working herself into a frenzy with her work.

"Oh, Thunder? A letter came for you earlier today," said Rarity just as Thunder Light was about to head up the stairs. Thunder Light stopped mid step before turning to look at one of the other desks Rarity pointed a hoof back at a desk behind her.

His eyes landed on a small, white envelope in the centre of the desk; but what caught his eye first was the Wonderbolt emblem on the back of the envelope. Thunder Light let out a slight sigh, but he trotted over to the desk.

Thunder Light reached for the letter and opened it up, pulling out the letter inside and putting the envelope back onto the table; his eyes giving the letter the quick once over. But when he unfolded the last part of the letter, a couple of golden tickets fell from the letter.

"Gala tickets?" Thunder Light asked, before his eyes landed on the signature at the very bottom of the letter.

_Spitfire._


End file.
